Chaos Lever Podcast (Ned Bellavance and Chris Hayner)

The Internet: it was never supposed to work this well, and yet, here we are. This week, we’re diving into how we went from isolated, room-sized computers to a global, decentralized network that somehow (mostly) functions. We break down the early days of networking, when computers had to physically dial each other up, and how we eventually arrived at the distributed, self-healing, packet-switching magic that powers everything today. 

Along the way, we cover the different network models—centralized, decentralized, and fully distributed—and why only one of them could survive a nuclear attack (always an important design consideration). We also touch on ARPANET, the first real Internet, and how a bunch of researchers, military contractors, and a few weirdly named computers set the stage for what we have now. Spoiler: it involves a lot of improvised problem-solving and some very lonely PDP-10s. 

So if you’ve ever wondered how routing actually works, why the Internet doesn’t just collapse under its own weight, or what an “IMP” is, we’ve got you covered. Just don’t blame us if you leave this episode with a sudden urge to dig through RFCs. 

🚀 LINKS 
🔗 RFC 1206: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1206
🔗BGP episode: https://pod.chaoslever.com/break-the-glass-and-walk-away-a-very-brief-overview-of-bgp/
🔗Supercomputing episode: https://pod.chaoslever.com/from-cray-1-to-el-capitan-the-evolution-of-supercomputers-chaos-lever/
🔗Classical computing: https://pod.chaoslever.com/turing-to-transistors-classical-computing-101/
🔗Brief history of the internet: https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/

In this episode of Chaos Lever, we take a trip down memory lane to explore the history of blogging—starting with the humble beginnings of bulletin board systems (BBS) and online forums, and moving through the rise of blogs in the early 2000s. We’ll reminisce about Justin Hall’s early “personal homepage,” the birth of the term “weblog,” and how platforms like WordPress revolutionized online content creation.

From the golden days of Tumblr to the shift towards social media giants like Twitter and Facebook, we dive into how blogging has evolved and what it means for online self-expression today. Plus, we’ll touch on the current kerfuffle between WordPress and WP Engine—and why open-source projects like WordPress still matter.

Stay tuned for a discussion filled with nostalgia, tech trivia, and more!

 Links: 
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Memory 
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet 
- https://links.net/vita/web/start/original.html 
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere 
- https://firstsiteguide.com/robot-wisdom-and-jorn-barger/ 
- https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Extremely-Online/Taylor-Lorenz/9781982146863 
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter 

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris rejoice that Voyager 1 is fully operational, remind you to update vCenter Security, ignore Dell’s demand for in-person attendance, and discuss Claude 3.5 Sonnet. 

Links: 

• Interstellar Voyager 1 Fully Operational Again
• Critical vCenter Security Patches Released - You Know What To Do
• Dell’s Demand For In Person Attendance Ignored
• Anthropic releases Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gradually Improving On 3.0

A look into Cloud Field Day 19 and SoftIron's trailblazing path in cloud technology through a fusion of custom hardware and software.

Cloud Field Day 19 & Softiron’s Cloud Revolution: 

At Cloud Field Day 19, a showcase for the latest in tech innovation, Ned discovers SoftIron's novel approach to private cloud technology. He explains how SoftIron has built their product "from the ground up," examines the potential to revolutionize the VMware-dominated landscape, and highlights its appeal for government entities in need of stringent compliance. Beyond tech, Ned and Chris also discuss pressing debates, like which pizza size truly reigns supreme for flavor? Join us for a captivating journey into SoftIron's transformative effect on the cloud tech world.

Links: 

• Get an in-depth look at the cutting-edge solutions presented at Cloud Field Day 19. Watch the vendor presentations here.
• Intrigued by SoftIron's approach to private cloud solutions? Dive deeper into their technology and offerings by visiting their official website.
• Other notable products at Cloud Field Day 19 include: 
  • Broadcom Ultra Ethernet Consortium
  • Platform 9 Elastic Machine Pool product
  • Dell APEX Cloud Platform
• For the latest updates, insightful discussions, and more tech banter, follow us on our LinkedIn Chaos Lever Page.
• Don't miss out on any episodes! Visit our website at chaoslever.com 

Ned and Chris discuss the supposedly uncertain future of cloud computing, reviewing recent CapEx and strategic shifts by leading providers, and speculating on AI’s impact on the future of technology.

Cloud Computing is Here to Stay

Ned sheds light on the reality behind the figures by digging into the growth strategies and market positions of top cloud providers including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. He highlights the stark contrasts in spending between AWS and Microsoft, including the inconsistency between AWS's words and actions when they compare the company's public pronouncements on AI investments with its actual investments. Furthermore, Ned and Chris discuss the growing impact of AI on cloud computing's future, paying particular attention to Microsoft's forward approach with OpenAI.

Show Highlights:

(00:00) - Intro

(03:55) - Tackling rumors about the decline in public Cloud computing 

(06:04) - Analysis of the growth trends of AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud alongside the law of large numbers.

(13:09) - The logistical hurdles of scaling cloud infrastructure.

(15:09) -  A look into variations in CapEx among the big three cloud providers

(21:50) - The increased durability of servers and its implications for cloud providers

(24:15) - The future impact of AI on cloud computing and Microsoft's early strategy with OpenAI.

(26:38) - Closing Remarks

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WOVCsnKYl637Pzd5-6Js01Fb-NRdFV4XbzyNVRQ1rWc/edit?usp=sharing

Links: 

• In 2017, AWS had revenues of $12.2B, an increase of $4.3B from 2015
• The high level numbers for the big three
• A presentation from Broadcom that talked about their latest chips
• Microsoft FY24 Q2https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/earnings/fy-2024-q2/press-release-webcast
• Amazon FY23 Q4
• Alphabet FY23 Q4

Ned shares his AI-focused experience at the DC AWS Summit, discussing AWS's AI portfolio and GenAI tools, but remains skeptical.

Mainlining AI in Washington DC

Ned shares his experience attending the DC AWS Summit, which was heavily focused on AI. This gave him the opportunity to put cognitive behavioral therapy into practice and confront his aversion to AI by attending nothing but AI-centric sessions. In this episode, Ned tells what he learned about AWS's AI portfolio, noting its key products like Amazon Bedrock. He also discusses GenAI in DevOps, featuring tools like Q Developer, GitLab Duo, and AWS's hardware innovations. Despite all this, Ned remains skeptical about AI, likening its current state to the hype preceding the dot-com bubble, with the best applications seen in developer and ops productivity.

Links Referenced:

• DC AWS Summit keynote: https://youtu.be/T67M8NIYxjk 

🌀 Hello, Alleged Humans! This week on Chaos Lever, we return to the fascinating world of cryptography, focusing on the Enigma Machine and its role in World War II. The Enigma Machine was an engineering marvel of its time, used by Germany to encode sensitive military communications. But even the most secure systems can have flaws, and Allied codebreakers—led by brilliant minds like Alan Turing—exploited those weaknesses to gain a decisive edge in the war.  

🎙️ Did you know the Enigma started as a commercially available product? In this episode, we explore its ingenious design, from rotating rotors to complex wiring, and how it became the backbone of German military communication. We also break down how codebreaking innovations, like the Bombe machines, turned what seemed like an unbreakable code into an Allied advantage. It’s a story of brilliance, determination, and, yes, a fair bit of German overconfidence.  

💡 We’re wrapping up our series on ciphers with this episode (Part 3!), paving the way for our next chapter: modern encryption and the digital age. Stick around to learn how the work of Bletchley Park laid the foundation for everything from online security to smartphone privacy. If you’re curious about the books we mention or want to try encoding messages yourself, check out the links below!  

---  

**LINKS**  
📘 Learn about Classical Cryptography: https://www.cipherchallenge.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/A-Book-on-Classical-Cryptography-by-Madness.pdf
🖥️ Try the Enigma Cipher Online: https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine
🧩Real Example of an Enigma Message From WWII Time Period: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/04/16/fa/0416fa8d3d2a219c96d4761bc00e4241.jpg
📖 Book Recommendation: *The Rose Code* by Kate Quinn:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53914938-the-rose-code 
📕 Book Recommendation: *Codebreaker's Victory*: https://books.google.com/books/about/Codebreakers_Victory.html?id=mhJnAAAAMAAJ

Thanks for listening, Alleged Human! Be sure to like, subscribe, and check back next week for more chaotic tech musings. 🎧

In this episode, we dive deep into the wild world of cyber insurance and the massive changes that have unfolded between 2020 and 2023. Remember when we said cyber risks would increase and insurance applications would get tougher? Well, they sure did! And that’s just the start. Join us as we break down how cyber insurance policies have evolved—from simple yes/no questions to intense multi-page interrogations.

But wait, there’s more! Like the Joker sequel no one asked for, this episode takes an unexpected turn, and we’ll spend some quality time discussing Incident Response Plans—the unsung hero of cybersecurity that can make or break your insurance prospects. Not sure what a real IR plan looks like? Spoiler: "Call Dave to fix it" won’t cut it.

Get ready for a deep, sometimes sarcastic, but always insightful exploration of the policies and plans that protect your business—and your sanity—in the face of rising cyber threats.

🎙️ Topics Covered:

• The evolution of cyber insurance policies (2020 vs. 2023)
• What insurers are looking for now (and what’s expected from you)
• Why Incident Response Plans matter more than ever
• NIST’s framework for a solid IR plan and how to actually use it

Links:

•  https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/incident-response 

Understanding the effects of cyber insurance on the ever-evolving landscape of digital threats

A Trip Through Cyber Risks

In a time when digital threats are bigger than Ned's love of Tim Tams, Ned and Chris discuss how the rules for cyber insurance have become more restrictive, requiring businesses to undergo audits and put in place particular cybersecurity measures to be eligible for coverage. As the digital world braces for impact, they discuss how these rules are changing, the financial effects, the strict checks, and the sometimes bizarre rules for policy payouts. Tune in to find out more!

Links Referenced:

• Cyber Insurance Underwriters Predicting a Long, Sad, Data Breach and Ransomware Attack filled 2024
• Swiss Re
• Slate article about the history of cyber insurance
• Delinea’s 2023 State of Cyber Insurance report
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaos-lever/
• chaoslever.com

Ned and Chris cover quirky keyboard history, from missing keys and ThinkPad debacles to vintage typewriters and relic keys like Sys Rq and Scroll Lock.

Mo Keys Mo Problems

Ned and Chris explore the quirks of keyboards, starting with the irritation of missing home and end keys and the infamous ThinkPad function/control key switch. They journey back to typewriters of the late 1800s, like the Remington which gave us the QWERTY layout, and poke fun at old-school innovations like the shift key and tab key. The chat then shifts to terminal keyboards and early computers like the PDP-1, with its own peculiar keys. The guys also cover obsolete keys like Sys Rq, Pause/Break, Scroll Lock, and Num Lock, showing how they’ve become relics in today’s tech world.

🐶 Dogs don’t care about your sleep schedule, and apparently neither does AI, the metaverse, or the global cloud industry. Welcome to our annual Predictions Review Episode, where we celebrate how *mostly wrong* Ned was about everything (as usual) and how Chris continues to coast on vague predictions like an AI-enhanced Nostradamus.  

Here’s what we covered this week:  
🎯 Reviewing bold predictions about cloud revenue, AI lawsuits, and the elusive metaverse  
📈 Why CXL, PCIe 6, and RISC-V didn’t exactly take the world by storm  
🧠 How AI assistant fever continues to sweep the industry despite lawsuits and shady tactics  
👓 The rise and fall of Apple Vision Pro, and whether Facebook's Orion glasses are next  
💡 Who got it right (spoiler: not Ned) and what’s coming in 2025  

Join us for our last episode of 2024 as we laugh, groan, and occasionally pat ourselves on the back. Stick around for some bonus ranting about eggnog.  

Links:

- Nutanix has also struck a new partnership with Dell: https://www.nutanix.com/press-releases/2024/nutanix-and-dell-technologies-collaborate-on-new-joint-solutions
- Fermyon is still trucking along solo and just released version 3 of their Spin open source platform: https://www.fermyon.com/blog/introducing-spin-v3
- Scaleway labs offers RISC-V servers in the cloud: https://labs.scaleway.com/en/em-rv1/

Find show notes and more at https://chaoslever.com and we’ll see you next year for fresh predictions and fresh failures. 🎉

A review of the core keynote speeches at the 2024 RSA Conference and what they mean for IT defenders.

I Didn’t Go To The RSA Conference So You Don’t Have To

Didn’t make it to the 2024 RSA Conference? Well neither did Ned and Chris, but that’s not going to stop them from talking about it. This year’s theme was “The Art Of The Possible,” highlighting tech’s potential and the threats it faces. AI was a big topic with lots of talk about how both attackers and defenders are using it. The "Secure By Design" pledge was also a key initiative, focusing on better product security. Interestingly, Zero Trust, which was a hot topic in past years, didn’t get much attention this time around since deep engineering concepts aren’t top-of-mind once past the first wave of publicity.

Links

• Full agenda of the 2024 RSA Conference: https://www.rsaconference.com/usa/agenda/full-agenda#t=agenda-full-catalog-tab&sort=%40eventstart%20ascending%3B%40parenttitle%20ascending&numberOfResults=25
• RSA Conference YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RSAConference 
• 2024 Verizon Data Breach Report: https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/ 
• CISA’s Secure by Design Pledge: https://www.cisa.gov/securebydesign  
• CL episode “The Reality of 'Secure by Design' and the Future of Cybersecurity”: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-reality-of-secure-by-design/id1614000252?i=1000648350807   

• AWS Drops Egress Fees For Deserters
• Apple Releases Urgent Security Patch Covering Two Zero-Days
  • Signal wrote a whole blog post about it in September 2023
• HDMI 2.1 on Linux? AMD Says No Dice
• VMware Releases Emergency Patches For Sandbox Escape Vulnerabilities 

In this reissued episode (AKA the over-overhyped edition), Ned is pedantic about the term Supercloud, Chris is pedantic about everything, and we both think Halo Rise is a terrible, horrible, no good idea.

Supercloud is as Supercloud Does

Ned is no longer a stickler for language, but he still can't stand the term “supercloud.” In this reissued episode, we break down this term that’s been kicking around since 2016 in various guises. Ned regales us with tales from his analyst days and the dubious connection between analyst firms and the supercloud. He and Chris dissect the latest buzzword definition and ask the burning question: is "supercloud" just marketing drivel? Spoiler: yes, and a contradictory one at that. 

Links Referenced:

• A website from Cornell that is an actual software project to allow for application migration between clouds http://supercloud.cs.cornell.edu/ 
• MIT webpage about a project they called supercloud that was meant to enhance collaboration between MIT Lincoln labs, students, and faculty https://supercloud.mit.edu/ 
• The rise of the supercloud https://siliconangle.com/2021/12/07/the-rise-of-the-supercloud/ 
• There is a working group definition of Supercloud you can check out https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SP0G-3CEnJ4Zz1sPoZt6eA6Weq8F5Osk93jLcPLcK60/edit?usp=sharing
• It was discussed in an IT Roundtable at Cloud Field Day 15 https://techfieldday.com/appearance/rise-of-the-supercloud-cloud-field-day-15-delegate-roundtable/

Lightning Round

• Amazon announces preorder for Halo Rise, because Bezos literally wants to watch you sleep https://www.cnet.com/health/sleep/amazon-reveals-the-halo-rise-a-sleep-sensing-gadget-and-sunrise-alarm-clock/
  • Keeping your data safe is a bar that Amazon has consistently, and repeatedly, failed to clear https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-failed-to-protect-your-data-investigation/
• Reason Number 0 Not To Run Exchange Yourself https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/high-severity-microsoft-exchange-0-day-under-attack-threatens-220000-servers/
  • Microsoft has an advisory post up that details the vulnerabilities and suggested mitigation strategies https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2022/09/29/customer-guidance-for-reported-zero-day-vulnerabilities-in-microsoft-exchange-server/
• OpenAI removes waitlist, gives full, immediate access to DALL-E https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/artificial-intelligence-images-dall-e/
• C and C++ are looking mighty rusty, or rather they aren't https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/28/is_it_time_to_retire_c/
• Google moving forward with Manifest v3 mandate, much to society's general disgust https://www.ghacks.net/2022/09/09/opinion-it-is-time-to-switch-from-chrome-to-another-browser/
• Stadia Fragged By Friendly Fire https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/01/stadia-died-because-no-one-trusts-google/
  • Alas, another service killed by Google. Wonder if there's a site tracking that sort of thing? https://killedbygoogle.com/

Original Episode:
https://pod.chaoslever.com/behold-the-superbook-28/ 

The Not-So-Hostile Takeover of iMessage Technology

Originally Published on 12/21/2023

The Dreaded Green Bubble

It's the shake-up of the century, or at least… it's pretty big news. It seems that pretty soon, non-Apple devices will be able to support iMessage technology. So how is this even possible? In order to answer that question, Ned walks us through the history of text messaging technology, from SMS to BBM to MMS and beyond. If you've ever wondered if phone carriers have been ripping you off, or providing sub-standard security, spoiler alert: you're right.

• The signaling channel behind SMS technology
• Wait, we send an average of how many texts per day?
• The infamous text fee hike of the mid-aughts
• BlackBerry Messenger's origins
• What actually is RCS technology?
• How Beeper Mini accesses iMessage technology on non-Apple devices

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

The guys discuss Google Chrome’s decision to stop trusting new Entrust certificates.

Entrust Distrusted by Google Chrome

Ned and Chris take a deep dive into the juicy tidbit about Google Chrome throwing Entrust under the bus. They dissect Chrome's decision to cut off new Entrust certificates starting October 31, 2024, all thanks to Entrust’s persistent screw-ups. Their chat covers how digital certificates are supposed to keep our online world secure and how modern tools like ACME and Certbot have made managing certificates way easier than it used to be. The guys also touch on how extended validation certificates have lost their shine and the latest drama with DigiCert's certificate revocations.

Links

• Original Google Security Blog post announcing Entrust distrust 
• Entrust’s commitment to answering to all of Google’s concerns 
• Discussion of an example where Entrust failed to revoke a bad cert 
• DigiCert Certificate Revocations 
• Post-Recording Update: Mozilla decides to untrust Entrust too 

 In this episode of Chaos Lever, we dig into the latest tech updates and industry moves, from Amazon's ambitious push to rival OpenAI to Qualcomm’s plans for ARM-powered Windows laptops. We’ll also explore MacOS’s tricky approach to app sandboxing and debate whether Notepad really needs AI.

*Amazon to Invest in Anthropic AI to Compete with OpenAI—But There's a Catch* 
Amazon is making a big move into the AI arena by deepening its investment in Anthropic, aiming to challenge Microsoft-backed OpenAI. AWS will further integrate Anthropic’s AI tech into its offerings, expanding on a 2023 partnership that also made AWS an Anthropic services provider. Interestingly, Amazon’s deal may require Anthropic to shift from NVIDIA chips to Amazon’s own "Trainium" and "Inferentia" chips, doubling up on revenue potential. Is this strategy genius or misguided? (https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/amazon-eyeing-multibillion-dollar-investment-in-claude-maker-anthropic-heres-why-its-a-big-deal)

*Qualcomm Promotes 58 Models of ARM-Based Windows Laptops* 
Qualcomm is shaking up the laptop market with 58 new ARM-powered Windows models launching soon, partnering with brands like Dell, HP, and Samsung. These ARM-based laptops promise better battery life, but compatibility challenges still haunt Windows ARM. Some users, however, report smoother experiences with recent Windows updates and compatibility improvements. Can these new laptops finally compete with Intel and AMD? (https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/07/qualcomm_triples_windows_on_arm/) 

*MacOS App Sandboxing: More Complicated Than It Seems* 
Apple's approach to app sandboxing in MacOS sounds good in theory—limiting apps’ access to sensitive system areas—but its execution has loopholes. Certain processes can escape these sandbox restrictions, making it less reliable for security. This issue has been linked to several CVEs, sparking discussions on how Apple could improve MacOS sandboxing to catch up with BSD. (https://jhftss.github.io/A-New-Era-of-macOS-Sandbox-Escapes/) 

*Notepad Gets an AI Update—But Do We Really Need It?* 
Notepad, a trusty go-to for Windows users, is getting an AI update in the latest Windows 11 Preview. Users can now rewrite text with AI suggestions, though many wonder why a simple tool needs AI features. The new addition, which requires a Microsoft login, raises questions about the need for AI in every corner of the OS. Sometimes, simple is better! (https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2024/11/06/new-ai-experiences-for-paint-and-notepad-begin-rolling-out-to-windows-insiders/) 

In this week's episode of Tech News of the week, Ned and Chris discuss various IT challenges, including secure naming conventions for S3 storage, issues with Windows patch updates, new UK regulations on default passwords, and the hype around a new sudo clone.

Links: 

• Careful With Your S3 Naming
• Another Day, Another Disastrous Windows Patch Bundle That Breaks Everything
• No More Terrible Default Passwords In The UK
• Another Day, Another sudo Clone That Everyone Thinks Will Take Over The World

Ned and Chris explore the curious origins of everyday tech terms, like "download" and "log in," and how they became part of our digital lives.

Tech Etymology 

This episode of Chaos Lever examines the fascinating backstory behind standard tech terms. Ned and Chris discuss how these terms evolved from practical uses in the past to the digital expressions we use daily. This episode also touches on current events in the tech world, including Redis's licensing changes and HashiCorp's legal battles, providing a humorous yet insightful look into the complexities of the tech industry.

Links: 

• Torsion of Wing Trusses at Diving Speeds
• English Stack Exchange
• I asked ChatGPT, which unsurprisingly quoted Wikipedia at me.
• I’ll just link the Etymonline post for that one
• origin of Kubernetes at the link
• National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics technical note from 1947
• Matt Ferrell over at Undecided

 Ah, passwords—the not-so-secret keys to our digital world. In this episode, we dig into the fascinating (and flawed) history of passwords, from their Roman origins to their debut in 1960s computing, and the constant struggle between ease and security ever since. Why are we still relying on passwords that can be hacked in seconds? And what are the latest recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to make our digital identities safer?

Join us as we cover: 

🔒 How passwords began, and why they’re so easily abused 
🔒 The hilarious and painful ways users circumvent complex password rules 
🔒 NIST's latest guidelines for making passwords simpler yet safer 
🔒 The growing importance of passkeys, MFA, and password managers 
🔒 Alternatives to passwords that may finally lead to better security for all 

If you’re tired of juggling endless passwords or getting locked out because you can’t remember your “favorite childhood pet,” this is the episode for you. 

Links: 

• https://www.wired.com/2012/01/computer-password/
• https://www.troyhunt.com/passwords-evolved-authentication-guidance-for-the-modern-era/
• https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/business/case-of-the-purloined-password.html 
• https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/FIPS/fipspub112.pdf 
• https://neal.fun/password-game/ 
• https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html#password 

Get ready for a *spooktacular* look at one of the least spooky (but incredibly powerful) tools ever made: Microsoft Excel. It's Excel’s 40th anniversary, so we're diving into its history, quirks, and how this humble spreadsheet app has managed to shape business, science, finance, and... espionage? Yes, you read that right.

Excel may not sound thrilling, but trust us, it's one of the most impactful tech tools of the last 40 years. From financial firms to scientific research, sports leagues, and even British intelligence, Excel’s endless versatility has led to some, let’s say... *interesting* mishaps along the way. We’ll explore:
- The origins of the spreadsheet concept dating back to ancient Mesopotamian clay tablets (yes, seriously)
- Landmark moments like the creation of VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, and Excel’s first big splash
- Iconic Excel fails, from the JP Morgan $6.2B blunder to national policy mistakes—Excel giveth, and Excel taketh away!
- The rise of VBA, Excel World Cup, and how Excel thrives today in the cloud era

So grab a pumpkin spice latte, sit back, and open a workbook with a mini-golf game embedded. You’ll never look at spreadsheets the same way again. 💀

 Links: 
- https://www.qashqade.com/insights/the-worst-financial-services-excel-errors-of-all-time 
- https://www.teampay.co/blog/biggest-excel-mistakes-of-all-time 
- https://sheetcast.com/articles/ten-memorable-excel-disasters 
- https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39870485 
- https://infotech.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2016/01/25/new/ 
- https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=5478 
- https://spinpasta.fandom.com/wiki/Hall_of_Tortured_Souls 
- https://fmworldcup.com/excel-esports/microsoft-excel-world-championship/ 

 In today’s episode, we’re diving into one of IT’s murkiest topics: Attack Surface Management, or ASM. Can ASM be fun? Maybe. Is it critical for modern security? Absolutely. If you’ve ever wondered what ASM actually does, or why it’s more than just the latest buzzword, we’ve got answers (and helping handfuls of snark).

We explore how ASM helps businesses stay on top of their digital perimeters—those tricky-to-manage spaces outside the traditional data center walls. From spotting exposed IPs and misconfigured servers to reining in shadow IT, ASM aims to give organizations continuous visibility into their “attack surface.” And while ASM can’t replace yearly pen tests or manage itself like a SOAR, it’s an invaluable tool for identifying vulnerabilities before hackers do.

Join us as we untangle ASM’s purpose, benefits, and its place in a security stack alongside tools like SIEM and SOAR. Could ASM be your best defense against hidden threats? Tune in to find out! And remember, in security, making the news is rarely a good thing. 

LINKS: 

- Gartner’s Insights into Attack Surface Management (https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/5341663) 
- BlueKeep: Still Crazy (Good at Being Used for Hacking RDP) After All These Years (https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa19-168a) 

This week we talk lawsuits, leaks, and legacy code—all wrapped in Kubernetes vulnerabilities and good ol' DNS doom. It's everything you didn't know you needed to hear, and more. Let's dive in:

🧠 TikTok is getting slammed with a €500 million fine from the Irish Data Protection Commission for casually throwing GDPR into the sea. The Tok (yes, we're calling it that now) has been caught red-handed shuffling EU user data straight outta the continent. Meanwhile, April 5th was the US deadline for a sale-or-ban situation. You're in the future. You know what happened. We don’t. https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/tiktok-reportedly-faces-a-%25e2%2582%25ac500-million-fine-for-sending-private-user-data-to-china-162214079.html

🐙 NGINX Ingress controller vulnerability alert! Whizz disclosed a cluster of five issues that basically throw open the doors to your entire Kubernetes environment—if, and only if, the attacker is already inside. Still, maybe stop listening to this podcast and go patch your stuff. https://thehackernews.com/2025/03/critical-ingress-nginx-controller.html

💾 Bill Gates just released original Microsoft source code from 1975, and yeah, it’s both nostalgia bait and promo for his new autobiography. The code's printed. As a PDF. It's massive. And full of 1970s programming hacks that might hit a little too close to home for modern devs. https://www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-page-topic/reader/microsoft-original-source-code

🌐 DNS is always the problem. The latest? Fast Flux DNS attacks. CISA is waving red flags about a technique that helps malware stay stealthy by constantly changing IP addresses linked to C2 servers. It's a real “blink and you missed it” kind of threat. Patch your filters, folks. https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/cisa_and_annexable_allies_warn/

Don’t forget to patch your stuff and like, subscribe, or just go yell at a router. See you next week!

AI is everywhere, and it's not just helping the good guys. In this episode, we dive deep into the world of AI and cybersecurity. From AI-enhanced phishing attacks to deepfakes and malware, we explore how bad actors are using AI to lower the bar for cybercrime and the challenges organizations face in defending against it. Discover how AI is not only making it easier for cybercriminals to target you, but also how it’s being used to fight back. We’ll also discuss emerging security tools, the rise of AI legislation, and what the future holds for AI in the ever-evolving world of IT security.

If you're curious about the latest threats, real-world examples of AI-generated attacks, or just want to know how companies are adapting their defenses, this episode is a must-listen.

🔒 Stay informed, stay secure!

• https://cybersecurity-magazine.com/the-evolving-threat-landscape-in-2024-ai-takes-centre-stage/
• https://aiindex.stanford.edu/ai-index-report-2023/
• https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sanfrancisco/news/fbi-warns-of-increasing-threat-of-cyber-criminals-utilizing-artificial-intelligence
• https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-deploy-ai-written-malware-in-targeted-attacks/
• https://www.catonetworks.com/blog/the-path-to-sase-a-project-planning-guide/
• https://www.scworld.com/news/38-of-ai-using-employees-admit-to-sending-sensitive-work-data

NIST double security with version 2.0, Fifteen Year Path to Profitability for Nutanix, White House declares war on C and C++, and more!

• NIST Releases Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 - Now with Double The Security
• Fifteen Year Path to Profitability 
  • Must be all those Booth Babes on Ferris Wheels.
• White House Declares War on C and C++
• New Zealand is Gaslit on Leap Day

This week in Tech News of the Week we dive into a series of significant tech and cybersecurity developments: Home Depot's troubling supply chain data breach, Supermicro's controversial decision not to fix hackable BMCs, and much more!

Links:

• Home Depot Hammered by Supply Chain Data Breach
• Hackable BMCs for Supermicro Won’t Be Fixed
• Intel Releases New AI Accelerator Chip, Looks To Keep Accelerating
• Google Tries To Get A Leg Up Intel With A New ARM

Ned and Chris talk to Doug Madory about changes in BGP since the mid-1990s.

The More Things Change, the More BGP Changes a Little Bit

Ned and Chris dive into the evolving landscape of BGP with Doug Madory, the Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik. Despite the rapid transformation of the internet since the mid-1990s, BGP remains largely unchanged, leading to a rise in routing hijacks and user errors. Doug discusses how automated filters and cryptographic tools like RPKI ROV are mitigating mistakes and improving security. He explores the potential of BGP solutions in reducing global issues and the importance of initiatives like ASPA. The guys also get Doug’s take on significant events like the Allegheny/Verizon incident and the FCC's ongoing efforts to enhance BGP security.

Links

• Kentik: https://www.kentik.com/ 
• Twitter: https://x.com/DougMadory 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougmadory/ 
• Kentik blog: https://www.kentik.com/blog/ 

The intricacies of DNS, exploring alternatives, and unpacking Microsoft's ZTDNS as they unravel the web of network naming.

Digging Deeper Into DNS 

Building on their previous discussion, Ned and Chris explore lesser-known alternatives to DNS and the evolution of network security protocols. They discuss NetBIOS, a system developed by IBM for internal network communications, explaining how it handled name resolutions within smaller network segments in a noisy and often inefficient way. They also detail the development of DNS security measures like DNSSEC and DNS over HTTPS, which play critical roles in protecting DNS against various threats. Highlighting Microsoft's latest initiative, Zero Trust DNS (ZTDNS), they explain its objective to boost network security by restricting DNS requests to only those that are approved.
 

Links: 

• Original IBM PC network reference from 1984
• NetBIOS Standard 
• WINS deprecated
• Windows Server NT 3.5
• Encapsulate commands in DNS
• ZTDNS

Welcome to this week’s Tech News of the Week! Join us as we break down the most fascinating and sometimes ridiculous tech stories making headlines. Let's dive in! 🎙️

🚨 **Cyber Trust Mark Labels**  
Starting in 2025, new "Cyber Trust Mark" labels will appear on IoT devices, supposedly ensuring better security standards. But will this label actually mean anything, or is it just marketing fluff? Introduced by the FCC in 2023 and overseen by UL Solutions, this program outlines six key security capabilities, like software updates and data protection. Look for this label when buying smart devices in the future! 🔐 Learn more here: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/07/us-government-set-to-launch-its-cyber-trust-mark-cybersecurity-labeling-program-for-internet-connected-devices-in-2025/

🚗 **Goodyear’s Smart Tires Initiative**  
Forget smart cars—Goodyear says smart *tires* are the future! At CES, they unveiled their Tire Intelligence Platform (Sightline), which monitors tire performance, weather conditions, and driving history to improve vehicle handling. They’re even working on embedding sensors directly into the tires themselves. Looks like your tires may soon know more about the road than you do! 🌧️ Learn more here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/self-driving-cars-dont-do-snow-goodyear-says-the-solution-is-smarter-tires-6ccf0e85

👶 **CES Worst in Show Awards**  
The "Worst in Show" awards are back, calling out the worst tech products in terms of security, privacy, and environmental impact. This year's highlights:  
* 📷 *Least Private:* The Bosch Revell Smart Crib—because who doesn’t want a crib spying on their baby?  
* 🔓 *Least Secure:* TP-Link Archer BE900 Router, flagged for reporting security issues to the Chinese government before telling customers.  
* ❄️ *Worst Overall:* The LG AI Home Inside 2.0 Refrigerator—because apparently knowing what's inside requires AI and an invasion of privacy. Get the full rundown at WorstInShowCES.com! Learn more here: https://www.worstinshowces.com

🌐 **China’s Silent Telecom Cyberattack**  
A chilling report reveals China-backed hackers, Salt Typhoon, infiltrated US wireless networks and political campaigns. The group accessed over a million user accounts through known software vulnerabilities that weren’t patched. No ransoms, no bragging—just quiet, calculated spying for months. The US government is finally urging everyone to adopt end-to-end encryption for calls and texts. Irony, anyone? 🕵️‍♂️ Learn more here: https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/typhoon-china-hackers-military-weapons-97d4ef95

That’s all for this week’s tech roundup! Thanks for tuning in—and don’t forget to patch your software. Bye! 👋

Ned and Chris explore the chaotic fallout from a CrowdStrike Falcon sensor update that crashed Windows systems across various sectors.

Where Were You the Day the Screens Turned Blue?

The tech industry is a house of cards propped up by a mishmash of redundant systems and safety nets. In this episode, Ned and Chris dive into CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor update on July 19, 2024. This blunder sent Windows systems crashing, causing chaos across airlines, retail stores, and hospitals. They dissect how the update triggered the dreaded Blue Screen of Death and the nightmarish recovery process, especially for BitLocker-encrypted systems. Solutions like macOS’s System Extensions and Linux’s eBPF are tossed around, with a side of skepticism about the balance between speed and security and the inevitable trainwreck of regulatory responses.

Fifth-generation programming languages? Generations don’t even matter anymore. We’re basically at iPhone generation 16-and-a-half, and at some point, people are just making stuff up. Speaking of making things up, today’s episode of Chaos Lever is all about NAT (Network Address Translation), a necessary evil—or maybe just evil—that helped shape the internet as we know it. To break it all down, we’re joined by the legendary Ivan Pepelnjak, a CCIE Emeritus, BGP wizard, and all-around networking guru. He’s here to walk us through the chaotic history of NAT, why it happened, and why, despite all efforts, it’s never really going away. 

We dive into the days when IP was just one of many competing protocols, when grabbing an IP block was as easy as sending an email, and when the first NAT implementations were only meant to be a temporary fix.

Spoiler alert: that temporary fix became the foundation of modern networking. Ivan shares his firsthand experience from decades in the field, discussing why IPv6 adoption has been slow, how carrier-grade NAT is making things even messier, and why the dream of a fully end-to-end connected internet never really stood a chance. Plus, we touch on some truly wild networking trivia—like how stock exchanges measure fiber cable lengths to the nanosecond. 

If you’ve ever wondered why your home Wi-Fi setup still relies on NAT, why cloud providers and ISPs are desperate to push IPv6, or what networking challenges we’ll still be complaining about in another 20 years, this episode is for you. Stick around for some networking history, a bit of good-natured industry snark, and of course, a little chaos. And if you make it all the way to the end? Congrats, you’ve earned the right to set up your own double-NAT configuration at home—for "fun". 

---

LINKS 

🔗 Chaos Lever Website: https://chaoslever.com
🔗 Chaos Lever LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chaoslever
🔗 Ivan Pepelnjak’s Blog & Networking Resources: https://blog.ipspace.net
🔗 NetLab Open Source Project: https://netlab.tools

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris watch Microsoft Azure continue to miss the mark amid a DDoS attack, turn up the heat on Intels’ CPU meltdown, pour water onto the AI bonfire, and look at how easy it is to prompt a hack of ChatGPT.

Links:

• Microsoft Fiddles While Azure Burns
• Two Generations of Intel CPUs Affected by Chip-Destroying Voltage Bug
• AI Isn’t A Pancea? Say It Ain’t So!
• OpenAI Releases Safety Update To ChatGPT Intended To Stop Some Prompt Hacks

Explore the story of how 11 lines of code disrupted the internet, the battle between open-source ethics and corporate power, and the fragile nature of our digital world.

Technology, power, and unexpected consequences

In this episode, Ned and Chris take us through the dramatic story of a single code change that temporarily crippled the internet, emphasizing the delicate web of dependencies in software development. They explore the ethical dilemmas and power dynamics at play when open-source contributions clash with corporate interests. It's a revealing look at the unexpected consequences that arise from the interconnected nature of modern technology.  

Highlights: 

• (00:00) Introduction & parental clichés
• (02:48) A Story about the Internet's Past
• (06:02) The Incident of Breaking the Internet with 11 Lines of Code
• (07:45) JavaScript, Node.js, and the Impact of NPM Packages
• (10:44) The Complexity of Dependency and Package Management
• (15:37) The Dramatic Deletion of Left-Pad and Its Consequences
• (22:19) Where the NPM crisis came from 
• (26:16) The Aftermath and Reflection on Modern Software Development
• (32:48) Closing Remarks

Links: 

• Have you ever noticed how many times someone has allegedly broken the internet? One time, a dude actually did. 
• Azer publicized the story, and what he did, on medium in a post called “I’ve Just Liberated My Modules.” 

Google Does a Good Thing For a Change, ChatGPT Gets Weird, Walmart Making Moves to Grow Their Ad Business, and more!

• Google Does a Nice Thing
• Canada Attempts to Outlaw The Flipper Device To Stop Car Theft
• ChatGPT Creeps Everyone Out
  • What happened when someone asked it to compare two backpacks
• Advertising Continues Taking Over Everything And It’s Just The Saddest Thing

 In this episode, we explore the 1995 cult classic Hackers in honor of National Civic Hacking Day. Despite not being a movie podcast, the episode revisits the film’s depiction of hacker culture with fleeting nostalgia and an analysis of its technical inaccuracies. From Angelina Jolie’s memorable performance to the infamous “hacker war” scene, Chris helps us unpack the real-world feasibility of the movie’s hacks while highlighting the absurdity of Hollywood’s portrayal of cybersecurity. We also touch on the movie’s few accurate nods to real hacker tactics like social engineering and phone "phreaking" and explore how technology has evolved since the mid-90s, particularly with a prescient nod to the rise of RISC architecture.

LINKS:

National Civic Hacking Day is Actually … A Thing

Cyrix CPUs - Yes There Was Something That Wasn’t Just Intel or AMD

Kevin Mitnick Quotes

There Is No Real Thing As A Salami Slicing Scam

Most Commonly Used Passwords From 1997

Register for ONE CON here: https://ringcentr.al/4ec35qi 

Ned and Chris delve into how AI shapes the internet's transformation, discussing its profound effects on current challenges and the rise of user-focused, diverse application integrations for the future.

ARPANET to User-Centric Futures

Explore the impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made on the internet in this episode of Chaos Lever! Our hosts, Ned and Chris, discuss the internet's evolution from ARPANET roots to its present complexity, highlighting the shortcomings of its foundational protocols and the role of AI in both exacerbating and potentially rectifying these issues. Ned also explains how emerging technologies like the Rabbit R1 work, suggesting a shift towards AI-driven tools that prioritize user needs and integrate diverse applications. 

• Origins (ARPANET and Early Days)
• Cory Doctorow and Enshittification
• Security Oversight in Protocols
• Changes in Internet Experience (BGP, Email, Social Media)

Get ready for another delightful descent into tech chaos, historical intrigue, and the occasional bout of existential questioning! This week, we mark (almost) three years since we started this podcast, and Ned is still totally not a robot.

We also take a fascinating trip through the history of cryptography, from ancient Egyptian secrets to Julius Caesar's favorite ciphers and the tragic tale of Mary, Queen of Scots. Along the way, there’s talk of quantum computers, beer kegs with secret compartments, and, of course, why vests are utterly pointless. 🦺 

💡 Episode Highlights: 

- Quantum Computing Advances: Why breaking a 50-bit RSA key is a big deal. 
- Cryptography Through the Ages: How humans have always loved secrets (and dick jokes). 
- Audience Survey Alert: We need your feedback! Visit https://chaoslever.com/survey 

If you enjoy tech, history, and wildly tangential humor, hit that like button, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts—even though two stars is good enough for us. 😏 

Links: 
- Researchers Break 50-Bit RSA Encryption For The First Time (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/for-the-first-time-ever-researchers-crack-rsa-and-aes-data-encryption/ar-AA1ssA1P) 
- Thawte Presents a Brief History of Cryptography (https://www.thawte.com/assets/documents/guides/history-cryptography.pdf) 
- The Many Codes Of Mary Queen of Scots (https://www.npr.org/2023/02/10/1155701113/mary-queen-of-scots-ciphers-prison-letters) 

🌐 Visit https://chaoslever.com for show notes, blog posts, and general tomfoolery. 

 Welcome to another episode of Tech News of the Week where we dissect the latest tech news with equal parts wit and snark. This week’s topics are as juicy as ever, from the DOJ taking a swing at Google to Apple’s embarrassing security scramble. Dive in below for more details and links to the full stories!

!!!Take the audience survey here!!!
https://pod.chaoslever.com/survey/2024-listener-survey/

DOJ Calls for Google Breakup
The Department of Justice is not mincing words about Google’s dominance, calling for drastic actions like splitting off Chrome, opening their search index, and banning exclusionary agreements. With parallels to the famous Microsoft antitrust case, this could signal major shifts in Big Tech. Will this be a game-changer or just another slap on the wrist? Only time—and the next administration—will tell.
Read more about the DOJ’s proposals here: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/welcome-to-googles-nightmare-us-reveals-plan-to-destroy-search-monopoly/

OSX and iOS Have Active Exploits – Update ASAP
Apple’s latest updates aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’re critical. Active exploits affecting everything from Safari’s JavaScript engine to Vision Pro’s OS mean you need to patch now. Ironically, these vulnerabilities were flagged by none other than Google’s Threat Analysis Group. Embarrassing for Apple, but great motivation for the rest of us to stay safe.
Get the details and update links here: https://osxdaily.com/2024/11/19/ios-18-1-1-ipados-18-1-1-security-updates-released/

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Welcomes Compute Big and Small
El Capitan, the world’s fastest supercomputer, is now operational, boasting a mind-boggling 1.742 exaFlops of power. Meanwhile, LLNL is also embracing Oxide’s innovative, open-source approach to server hardware for smaller-scale computing. Could Oxide be the future of enterprise clusters? Time will tell, but it’s a story worth following.
Learn more about El Capitan: https://www.llnl.gov/article/52061/lawrence-livermore-national-laboratorys-el-capitan-verified-worlds-fastest-supercomputer
And Oxide: https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/llnl_oxide_compute/

Microsoft Reinvents the Thin Client (Kind Of)
Introducing the Windows 365 Link: Microsoft’s take on the thin client, designed to connect users directly to their Windows 365 environments. While it might seem like an already-solved problem, its seamless integration and competitive pricing could win over enterprises. Love it or hate it, this is a product that’s likely here to stay. 
Explore the details about Windows 365 Link here: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3608683/microsofts-windows-365-link-is-a-thin-client-device-for-shared-workspaces.html

 Welcome to another episode of Chaos Lever, where Ned and Chris explore the history, intrigue, and occasional absurdity of cryptography! 🤖🧠 This week, it’s Part Two of our deep dive into codes and ciphers, from ancient Rome’s Caesar cipher to Napoleon’s overly optimistic battlefield encryption. Discover how cryptography evolved to outwit spies, soldiers, and codebreakers, setting the stage for the digital cryptography we know today. Plus: existential robots, live skeeting, and crunchy peanut butter. 🥜 📚 

In This Episode: 
✨ Why polyalphabetic ciphers were unbreakable… until they weren’t. 
✨ How the Vigenère cipher held strong for 250 years. 
✨ The curious tale of Napoleon’s cracked code. 
✨ Charles Babbage: Mathematician, cryptographer, and all-around genius. 

🌐 Links Mentioned: 

- Vignere Cipher - History of Coding and Decoding: https://medium.com/@jamesjinghuang/the-vigen%C3%A8re-cipher-from-unbreakable-enigma-to-cryptographic-relic-215761d30af8 
- The Vignere Cipher In Action: https://www.dcode.fr/vigenere-cipher 
- IBM’s History of Cryptography: https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/cryptography-history 
- Cypher Disk: By Hubert Berberich (HubiB) - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25964875 
- Union Army Disk: By Ryan Somma from Occoquan, USA - The Union Cipher Disk, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109642380 
- Listener survey: https://chaoslever.com/survey 

⏰ Timestamps: 
00:46 - Intro and Existential Robots 
04:10 - Recap of Part One 
10:52 - Polyalphabetic Ciphers Explained 
15:49 - Napoleon’s Code: A Lesson in Optimism 
18:50 - The Civil War Cipher Disk 
24:15 - Babbage Breaks the Vigenère Cipher 
29:59 - Outro and Survey Reminder 

👍 Support Chaos Lever: Your feedback matters! Take our quick listener survey share your thoughts. https://chaoslever.com/survey 

🚀 Welcome back to Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest, weirdest, and occasionally most questionable tech stories from the past week.

🧪 **D-Wave’s Dubious Quantum Supremacy Claim** 
D-Wave is back at it again, this time claiming "quantum supremacy" (insert dramatic echo here). They say their quantum chip solved a complex magnetic field simulation in 20 minutes—something they claim would take a classical supercomputer 200 years. But some researchers aren't buying it. Teams at NYU and EPFL Switzerland have already shown that a laptop or a few GPUs can solve parts of the problem much faster than D-Wave suggests. So, is this true supremacy or just more quantum marketing hype? 🤔 https://siliconangle.com/2025/03/12/d-wave-claims-achieved-quantum-supremacy-last-others-disagree/

🐧 **SUSE Wants to Support Red Hat (Yes, Really)** 
In a move that has everyone doing a double take, SUSE announced at SUSECon that they’re launching the "SUSE Multi My Linux" support program—meaning they’ll support older Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems, even after Red Hat stops maintaining them. It's a bold strategy, Cotton. The program covers proactive and reactive support for different Linux versions, and, oh yeah, SUSE Enterprise Linux 16 is dropping soon with support through *2047*. Optimistic much? 🌍 https://thenewstack.io/suse-displays-enhanced-enterprise-linux-at-susecon/

🚗 **Hacking Infotainment Systems: A New Cybersecurity Nightmare** 
If your car has a Pioneer DMH infotainment system, you might want to pay attention. Researchers at NCC Group exploited multiple zero-day vulnerabilities to inject spyware, track locations, and gain access to system data—all through a flaw in the Gracenote music database. While the proof-of-concept required physical access, they say it could be adapted for remote attacks. Pioneer has issued patches, so update your system… or just rip it out and go back to that 5-disc CD changer. 🎶 https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/car-exploit-spy-drivers-real-time

🍏 **Apple Delays AI-Powered Siri Updates—Blames Marketing** 
Apple’s much-hyped "Apple Intelligence" features for Siri have been shelved, possibly for up to a year, after internal testing revealed they don’t actually work. Success rates hovered between 66–80%, which is, uh, *not great*. Apple’s decision to pull back has led to some well-deserved mockery, but let’s be real—shipping half-baked AI features would’ve been way worse. Still waiting on that flying car, though. 🚁 https://9to5mac.com/2025/03/14/siri-delays-hurt-but-apple-averted-disaster-by-not-shipping-half-baked-product/

Weaveworks is calling it quits, USB Sticks decline in quality, Google is doing away with cached pages in Search, and Toothbrushes on the internet?! 

• Weaveworks Winds to a Close
• Report Reveals Decline in Quality of USB Sticks and microSD Cards
• Cached Pages On Google Search Are Gone
• When Toothbrushes Attack: Don’t Put Everything On The Internet, Vol. 867
  • Follow-up reporting shows that the botnet wasn’t real

This week in Tech News of The Week Ned and Chris chat about generational divides in tech adoption, regulatory nods to competition, the retirement of quirky AWS hardware, and the looming uncertainty around a TikTok ban. 

Links: 

• The Metaverse Is A Generational Thing, And We Ain’t That Generation
• FTC Agrees That Competition Is Good
• AWS Retires The Snowmobile Because Nothing In The World Is Fun Anymore
• TikTok Ban Appears Impotent, I Mean Imminent

Ned and Chris discuss DNS’s importance, illuminating its role in networking and the need to enhance its security.

The Internet's Phonebook

In this episode of Chaos Lever, Ned and Chris dive into the world of DNS—the system that acts like the internet's phonebook by translating website names into IP addresses that computers understand. They explore the origins of DNS, its role in networking, and its evolution over the years. The duo also discusses the latest advancements in DNS security and how these efforts aim to protect users from cyber threats, making the internet safer for everyone. 

Links: 

• Average of 17 devices in their house that need an IP address
• There’s a map available on apnic’s website that tracks DNSSEC validation rates
• The most recent RFC for DNSSEC published in 2023 quotes DNSSEC adoption at 10% or less for website domain names
• According to Yahoo Finance, Comcast is #7 of the 20 most hated companies, beating out such stinkers as FTX and Equifax
• Brief history of DNS
• DNS Wikipedia
• DNS RFC
• DNS over HTTP
• DNS over TLS
• DNSSEC
• ZTDNS 
• Encapsulate commands in DNS
• How DNS works zine 
• Average number of online devices in a home 

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris scold Google for getting their hand caught in the cookie jar, give their two cents on another CentOS getting off the ground, and list 1,800 reasons why Intuit’s new AI direction is a horrible decision.

Links:

• Advertising Company Google Chooses Not To Harm Their Ad Business
• Intuit Drinks The AI KoolAid
• Yet Another Initiative To Maintain CentOS Gets Off The Ground

Are your bones creaking? Is your back mysteriously acquiring new joints just to ache in fresh and exciting ways? Welcome to adulthood—and welcome back to Chaos Lever. In this episode, Ned and Chris dive into the literal pain of aging and the metaphorical pain of living under the digital thumbs of FAANG companies. We’re talking Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google—and how to maybe, just maybe, live without feeding their bottomless data maws.

We’re not just here to complain (though we are very, very good at that). This week, we explore the subtle art of escaping the FAANG ecosystem. Think Signal instead of WhatsApp, Linux instead of Windows, Discord instead of Facebook. You know—radical stuff like using a local bookstore or not accidentally setting your house on fire with a food dehydrator.

It’s part one of a two-parter, because wow, turns out there’s a *lot* of tech giants behaving badly. If you’ve ever wondered what your privacy is worth (spoiler: $20 if you’re lucky), or just need an excuse to finally ditch Instagram, this episode is for you. And hey, we even managed to get through it without a single lawsuit. So far.

📌 LINKS 
🔗 FAANG data munching: https://human-id.org/blog/faangs-out-what-big-tech-wants-with-your-data/
🔗 Pixel Fed: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2025/01/pixelfed-decentralized-instagram-competitor.html
🔗 Windows 11 will require an account: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-just-blocked-this-popular-windows-11-local-account-trick-but-workarounds-remain/
🔗 Framework laptops are pretty neat: https://frame.work
🔗 System76 is too: https://system76.com
🔗 Check out BookShop: http://bookshop.com

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris mourn the privacy of millions of AT&T customers after the company quietly announced a massive data breach, lament the failings of SAP security, celebrate the arrival of Markdown in Google Docs, and discuss NVIDIA opening up to open-source kernel modules.

Links:

• AT&T Believes That Sharing Is Caring
• SAP AI Product, and the Environment its Running On, Breached
• Markdown In Google Docs! At Least Two People Are Thrilled!
• NVIDIA Open-Sourcing Kernel Module

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris cross their fingers that the latest version of Teams will actually work, “celebrate” the career (and retirement) of Azure Service Manager, sneak past the security flaws of Microsoft MacOS apps, and banter about the now-banned FTC non-compete ban. 

Links:

• Microsoft Releases New Version of Teams App That Might Actually Work
• After Almost A Decade Azure Service Manager Is Finally Being Retired
• Many Microsoft MacOS Applications Have Major Security Flaws That Won’t Be Fixed
• FTC’s NonCompete Ban is Banned

🎙️ Tech News of the Week – October 2024 | Hard Drive Failures, Tesla's Robotaxi, and Wimbledon Goes Automated!

Join hosts Ned and Chris in this week's Tech News of the Week podcast as they explore the latest developments in technology and innovation. In this episode, we cover:

🚨 Data Loss Crisis: Hard drives are failing faster than expected, with 20% of backups potentially lost forever. What does this mean for your data and the music industry?
🚗 Tesla's Robotaxi: Tesla's "We Robot" event revealed the new Robotaxi and Robovan, but can we trust Elon Musk's ambitious timelines?
🎾 Wimbledon Goes Automated: The tennis world is embracing Hawk-Eye technology for line judging, leaving only the French Open behind.
🌐 Starlink's "Free" Service: After Hurricane Helene, Starlink offered "free" internet—but is it really free? We break down the fine print.

Tune in for these stories and more, plus some humorous takes on the latest tech news!

 Story Links: 

🔗 https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/twenty-percent-of-hard-drives-used-for-long-term-music-storage-in-the-90s-have-failed 
🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-robotaxi-event-was-long-promises-investors-wanted-more-details-2024-10-11/ 
🔗 https://apnews.com/article/wimbledon-technology-judges-6d0b6bcd279148b0baa4a2fc08e52dac 
🔗 https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/08/free_starlink_hurricane_helene/ 

#TechNews #Tesla #Robotaxi #Wimbledon #DataBackup #Starlink #Podcast

The contentious debate about tabs vs. spaces in coding, breaking down its historical roots and current implications.

Tabs vs. spaces 

This Chaos Lever episode explores the surprisingly intense debate around using tabs and spaces in programming. Ned and Chris cover the historical journey of coding practices from punch cards to modern coding environments. They discuss how seemingly small choices, like whether to use tabs or spaces, have great implications for code readability, maintenance, and even programmers’ salaries.

Links: 

• Whereupon I Ramble Hopefully Somewhat Coherently About The Spacing Wars In Computer Files
• Which is, as is true with so very many things, FORTRAN.
• All the way up to 1990, when FORTRAN finally made the formatting optional
• This has been proven by analyses that I choose to support because they totally line up with my already existing beliefs
• An analysis of the data behind Stack Overflow’s 2017 developer survey
• But what google did is kickstart the tabs vs spaces war by including in their formatting requirements this line

 Step into the Wild World of Telephones! 🛠️📞
In this episode of Chaos Lever, we’re dialing up a fascinating exploration of telephony with special guest Sarah Autumn! Sarah, a volunteer engineer at the Connections Museum in Seattle, takes us on a journey through the evolution of telephone systems, from the quirky mechanical marvels of the early 20th century to the legacy technology that still shapes our communication today. Spoiler: it’s as much magic as it is science.

📌 Highlights from this week’s episode include:

 - A behind-the-scenes look at the Connections Museum and its rare treasures.
- The history of telephone exchanges, old-school "operators," and why area codes exist.
- The surprising origins of familiar sounds like dial tones and busy signals.
- Stories of mechanical ingenuity, including a phone system powered by steel balls (!).

Whether you're a tech enthusiast or someone just curious about how we got from crank phones to iPhones, this episode is packed with history, humor, and a touch of chaos.

🎧 Links Mentioned in the Show:

- Connections Museum: Learn more or plan your visit. (http://www.telcomhistory.org/connections-museum-seattle/)
- Connections Museum YouTube Channel: Dive deeper into the inner workings of telephony. (http://www.telcomhistory.org/connections-museum-seattle/)
- Want to suggest a guest or topic? Head to https://chaoslever.com.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to keep the chaos going every week! 🎙️ 

Biden’s executive order on AI safety was 111 pages of not-terrible ideas like protecting privacy and creating AI guidelines. Naturally, big tech was *not* a fan. Because when you ask Meta and Google to behave responsibly, they act like you just insulted their mom.

Meanwhile in Europe: The EU held its AI Action Summit in Paris, making it clear they’re not messing around with AI governance. Public interest, worker protection, and global cooperation were on the table. Investors dangled €150B like a carrot—if only the EU would be a little less…protective of its citizens. 🙄

🧠 Then came Trump's executive order, aka the “let’s delete all the thoughtful stuff” memo. A whole two pages long, it replaced nuance with “make America #1 in AI because democracy and stuff.” Or, more accurately: “drill, baby, drill” but for GPUs.

📄 Enter OpenAI’s response to that call for action. On the surface, it’s just another document—but wow, the vibes are chaotic. There’s flag-waving, fear-mongering about China, and a healthy dose of “we want your data and your blessings.” Also, violently incoherent sentences that barely represent English.

📉 What *wasn’t* in OpenAI’s proposal? Anything about ethics, safety, upskilling displaced workers, or protecting vulnerable communities. But don’t worry—they did include buzzwords, bad logic, and more patriotic tech posturing than a Fourth of July parade.

LINKS:
🔗 Executive order 14110: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/01/2023-24283/safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence
🔗 OpenAI’s Response to the RFI: https://cdn.openai.com/global-affairs/ostp-rfi/ec680b75-d539-4653-b297-8bcf6e5f7686/openai-response-ostp-nsf-rfi-notice-request-for-information-on-the-development-of-an-artificial-intelligence-ai-action-plan.pdf
🔗 The original RFI: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/06/2025-02305/request-for-information-on-the-development-of-an-artificial-intelligence-ai-action-plan
🔗 Trumps AI EO: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/31/2025-02172/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence
🔗 Forbes Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianaspehar/2025/02/10/paris-ai-summit-2025-5-critical-themes-shaping-global-ai-policy/

This week on Chaos Lever, we explore a heartwarming yet launch into an in-depth (and completely correct, don’t question us) discussion about quantum computing and the hardware solutions behind a qubit. 🧠⚛️ 

Google, IBM, Amazon, and even Microsoft have been making big moves in quantum tech, each promising advancements that may or may not totally destroy encryption as we know it. Superconducting qubits, quantum tunneling, and the mysterious Majorana zero modes—it’s all here, and it’s all *probably* real.

Stick around for deep dives into how different qubit architectures compare, what quantum error correction means for scalability, and why tech companies are obsessed with giving their chips weird animal names. If you make it to the end, congratulations—you've earned yourself a snack from the fridge, preferably one that doesn’t require quantum coherence to stay intact. 🍕 

--- 

📌 **LINKS** 
🔗 Superconducting Qubit Physics: https://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~martinisgroup/classnotes/finland/LesHouchesJunctionPhysics.pdf
🔗 Google's Willow chip: https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/
🔗 Microsoft's Majorana chip: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/quantum/2025/02/19/microsoft-unveils-majorana-1-the-worlds-first-quantum-processor-powered-by-topological-qubits/
🔗 Amazon's Ocelot chip: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/27/1112560/amazon-quantum-computing-chip-makes-its-debut/
🔗 IBM's Heron chip: https://newsroom.ibm.com/2024-11-13-ibm-launches-its-most-advanced-quantum-computers,-fueling-new-scientific-value-and-progress-towards-quantum-advantage
🔗Topological state of matter paper: https://journals.aps.org/prb/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevB.107.245423

🌀 Thanks for listening! Follow Chaos Lever for more questionable but entertaining tech discussions. See you next week! 🚀

A review of a core keynote presentation at the 2024 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit and what it means for the IT industry.

One of the Good Ones: The 2024 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit

Sometimes it's worth putting pants on. In this case, it's for the 2024 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit. Despite previous criticisms of Gartner, Chris found the conference surprisingly enjoyable. In this episode, he provides an overview of the event, which featured over 150 sessions. One important keynote highlighted the unhelpful obsession with perfect IT security performance, emphasizing the need to focus more on recovery than prevention. Ned and Chris discuss the resulting industry burnout, which affects productivity and creativity. Other topics include evolving security behavior programs, AI and its risks, and the future impact of quantum technology.

Links

• Highlights from the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit 2024 https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/highlights-from-gartner-security-risk-management-summit-2024  
• Gartner YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Gartnervideo  
• Rahaf Haroush - How Burnout Makes Us Less Creative https://www.ted.com/talks/rahaf_harfoush_how_burnout_makes_us_less_creative?subtitle=en  
• Gartner Generative AI Impact Radar for 2024  https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/understand-and-exploit-gen-ai-with-gartner-s-new-impact-radar 
• Gartner Generative AI Impact Radar for 2024 https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/understand-and-exploit-gen-ai-with-gartner-s-new-impact-radar

📢 Welcome to another episode of Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest stories in tech—sometimes with insight, sometimes with sarcasm, but always with desks. Maybe? This week, we're talking about IBM finally sealing the deal with HashiCorp, Microsoft's continued Notepad nonsense, OpenAI's latest attempt to justify its existence, and the biggest crypto heist of all time. Buckle up!  

🟡 **HashiCorp Joins IBM**  
After 10 long months of regulatory limbo, IBM’s $6.4 billion acquisition of HashiCorp is finally official. Now that the deal has closed, IBM is set to integrate Terraform with Ansible, strengthen HashiCorp Vault with OpenShift, and generally try to make their aging product lineup more cloud-native. As a HashiCorp fan, I wasn’t exactly thrilled, but hey—at least IBM is dumping money into R&D. Cautiously optimistic? Maybe. Full breakdown here: https://www.hashicorp.com/en/blog/hashicorp-officially-joins-the-ibm-family and convo with Armon Dadgar here: https://www.youtube.com/live/p9VZMDRJ6m0

🟡 **Microsoft Notepad Gets AI Because… Reasons?**  
Notepad was perfect. It was simple. It was beautiful. And now, Microsoft is stuffing it with AI features nobody asked for—just like they’re doing with Paint. Oh, and they killed off WordPad, pushing people toward paid Microsoft Word instead. At least the AI-infested versions of Notepad and Paint are optional (for now), but this is a slippery slope, folks. More details: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2614943/microsoft-is-paywalling-these-features-in-notepad-and-paint.html

🟡 **GPT-4.5: Bigger, Better, and Full of Lies**  
OpenAI just dropped GPT-4.5, and it’s… well, it’s a thing. It’s bigger, more power-hungry, and claims to be "friendlier" and "more truthful"—which means it only lies to you **37%** of the time instead of **59%**. Progress? Maybe. Desperation? Definitely. Sam Altman’s money-burning machine continues, and SoftBank is still writing checks, so here we are. The full scoop: https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/27/1112619/openai-just-released-gpt-4-5-and-says-it-is-its-biggest-and-best-chat-model-yet/

🟡 **Bybit Suffers the Largest Crypto Heist Ever**  
Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit just lost **$1.5 billion** to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, making it the biggest crypto theft in history. Hackers exploited Bybit’s Ethereum wallet system, faked transactions, and walked away with an absolute fortune. The good news? Bybit says it’ll reimburse customers. The bad news? This whole mess proves, once again, that "faster" and "secure" are rarely friends. More on this wild story: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/cryptos-biggest-hacks-heists-after-15-billion-theft-bybit-2025-02-24/ 

Now, go away. Bye. 🚀

The guys explore SMTP fixes, quantum mechanics, and how quantum computing might disrupt encryption, plus IBM’s free quantum resources.

Bits, Quits, and Quantum Fits: The Mysteries of SMTP and Superposition

Ned and Chris dive back into the nightmare disaster hellscape that is SMTP and explore the band-aid solutions of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Then, they take on quantum mechanics and computing. After all, who doesn’t love a good brain-melting challenge? The guys also explore the wild world of qubits, superposition, and the potential future where quantum computing could make encryption as we know it obsolete. Plus, Chris gives a shout-out to IBM’s free quantum computing resources—because who wouldn’t want to dabble in quantum for fun?

Links

• Recent Paper Demonstrating Grover’s Algorithm in a 4-Qubit Processor 
• The Fundamentals of Quantum Computing - Grover’s Algorithm 
• IBM Quantum Computing Instructions on Running Grover’s Algorithm 
• Charles and Ray Eames - Powers of Ten on Youtube 
• Fujitsu Labs Opinions on Quantum Cracking RSA

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris discuss the Snowflake Hack, some BREAKING NEWS regarding the Microsoft Spyware Enablement Tool "Recall", Luna AI’s results (evaluated using AI), and Intel’s Lunar Lake. 

Links: 

• Snowflake Hack Hits TicketMaster and Santander
• Microsoft Spyware Enablement Tool Recall Compromised By Many People Immediately
• BREAKING NEWS!
• Luna Evaluates AI Results Using… AI
• Intel Releases Lunar Lake - Next Gen CPU With An Emphasis On [SIGH] AI

Welcome to another episode of Chaos Lever, where we take a deep dive into the tech abyss and come out slightly more confused than when we started.

This week, we're talking about the OG of directory services: X.500. Before Active Directory, before LDAP, there was this ambitious yet painfully cumbersome attempt to organize networked systems into a structured directory. Was it elegant? No. Was it practical? Also no. But did it lay the groundwork for everything we use today? Absolutely. Along the way, we uncover just how much of modern networking was cobbled together by people who were just making it up as they went.  

If you've ever wondered why directories matter, or you just enjoy hearing us ramble about obscure tech history, this episode is for you. And don’t worry—this is only part one. We still have Netscape, Microsoft, and a whole mess of bad decisions to cover. So buckle up, enjoy the ride, and remember: if you’re not questioning your life choices by the end of this episode, we haven’t done our job.  

---

🔗 **LINKS**  

- https://www.identityfusion.com/blog/the-most-complete-history-of-directory-services-you-will-ever-find 
- https://www.nexor.com/blog/prehistory-of-ldap 
- https://sec.cs.kent.ac.uk/x500book/
- https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/IR/nistir5819.pdf
- https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-X.500

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris discuss how Apple is paying OpenAI in “Exposure,” ten years of Kubernetes, Sherlocking, and Raspberry Pi’s IPO. 

Links: 

• Apple Is Paying OpenAI In… Exposure
• Kubernetes Turns Ten
• Stop Trying To Make Sherlocking Happen. It’s Not Going To Happen!
• Raspberry Pi Pops in IPO

Welcome to this week’s **Tech News of the Week**! 📰 Chris and Ned dive into four fascinating stories from the tech world that made us scratch our heads, laugh, and maybe even fear the AI overlords just a little. Let's break it down:  

✨ TikTok’s Secret Sauce
Want to know how TikTok seems to know you better than you know yourself? We explore a research paper that gives us a peek into TikTok's game-changing algorithm and why it's so eerily accurate. Spoiler: It's all about keeping you glued to your screen. But should it even be legal? Link to the paper here 👉 https://thenewstack.io/what-makes-tiktoks-algorithms-so-effective

⚡ The Stargate Project: AI Meets Texas
OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank are pouring billions into massive AI-focused data centers in Texas. Abilene is set to host one of the first 20 mega-centers, and locals have questions: Where’s all the power and water coming from? Meanwhile, Sam Altman has even bigger dreams (or nightmares) with trillions in investment. AI heaven or AI hell? You decide. Learn more here 👉 https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/21/openai-teams-up-with-softbank-and-oracle-on-50b-data-center-project/

🐑 Openvox: The Puppet Fork That Isn’t a Muppet
Remember Puppet? Well, it's been forked into Openvox after Puppet went proprietary. Openvox is staying open-source, and they’ve promised compatibility with existing Puppet extensions for now. We also go down a rabbit hole of rejected names (like Muppet and P-I-N-P), and Chris reminisces about why he avoided Puppet entirely. Full details here 👉 https://github.com/OpenVoxProject 

🖨️ Bamboo Labs: Locking It Down for Safety? 
Bamboo Labs made waves in the 3D printing world by locking down their printers to secure their cloud services. While some Redditors cried foul, Chris and Ned debate whether this is a practical move or a step toward ecosystem lock-in. Either way, 3D printing drama is alive and well. Read more here 👉https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/bambu-lab-pushes-a-control-system-for-3d-printers-and-boy-did-it-not-go-well/

Be sure to like, subscribe, and tell us what you think in the comments below! 👇 Don’t forget to hit that notification bell so you don’t miss next week’s episode of tech hilarity. See you next time! 🚀

 From AI's stumbling progress to groundbreaking tools and cyber threats, here’s what you need to know for this week:

All The Major AI Models Continue To Lose Money AND Stop Advancing:
Is the golden age of AI innovation already behind us? Reports from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic suggest that we may have hit a plateau. With increasing costs and diminishing returns, the financial and technical outlook for large AI models is looking bleak. Can ChatGPT 5—or any model—break through the ceiling? Or are we seeing the limits of what these technologies can achieve? (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-13/openai-google-and-anthropic-are-struggling-to-build-more-advanced-ai).

LocalStack Snags $25M for Public Cloud Emulation:
Say goodbye to accidental cloud overspending! LocalStack, an innovative tool that emulates public cloud environments locally, has just secured $25M in funding. From speeding up development cycles to saving on costs, LocalStack is making cloud development smarter and more efficient. Is this the future of cloud testing? (https://blog.localstack.cloud/series-a-announcement/).

FBI Investigates China-Based Cyberhacking of US Telecom Networks:
The FBI and CISA have revealed chilling details about China-linked cyberattacks targeting US telecom networks. Dubbed "Flax Typhoon," these attacks weaponize over 200,000 consumer devices to infiltrate critical infrastructure. What does this mean for national security—and your home devices? (https://www.newsweek.com/fbi-chinese-cyber-espionage-multiple-telecom-networks-1985617).

Dapr Graduates the CNCF: 
Dapr, Microsoft’s open-source distributed application runtime, has officially graduated from the CNCF, signaling its maturity and widespread adoption. With its modular approach to cloud-native app development, Dapr is redefining how microservices communicate securely and flexibly. What’s next for this trailblazing project? (https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/12/dapr-graduates-to-become-a-cncf-top-level-project/).

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris discuss zScaler's security status, Asahi Linux's new milestone, vulnerabilities in VPNs related to DHCP, and Congress's failure to maintain broadband discounts.

Links: 

• zScaler Wasssssssssssss.. NOT Hacked. Or Were They? I Mean Probably Not But Still
• Asahi Linux Reaches New Milestone
• VPNs Attackable Via DHCP Mechanism That Has Little To Do With VPNs
• Congress Still Sucks - Drops Broadband Discount Ball

It's a wild week in tech and we're taking you on a ride through the most ridiculous and revealing stories from the digital frontier. Buckle up.

🎵 Remember Napster? Of course you do. It was the soundtrack to many of our teenage years, sneaking MP3s over college Ethernet networks and dodging Metallica-shaped lawsuits. Well, guess what? It's back... again. Sort of. Another Web3 company has paid *$207 million* for the name and logo of a brand that hasn’t made a dime since Bush was in office. We break down the hilariously tragic life and times of Napster and why, in 2025, someone still thinks it's worth salvaging. https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/27/napster_gets_new_owner/

☁️ Microsoft Azure is quietly retiring legacy services, and one of them could break your whole environment. Classic Subscription Administrators are officially on the chopping block, and if you don’t migrate to RBAC by April 30, 2025, you’re out of luck—and out of your own account. Chris takes you through the Azure Service Retirement Workbook (yes, that’s a real thing) and how not to get nuked by an expired admin setting. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-workbook-service-retirement?tabs=impacted-services

🚀 Fermyon and Akamai just teamed up to drop *Wasm Functions*, a WebAssembly-based service with lightning-fast cold starts and a whole lot of polyglot potential. Think apps spinning up in half a millisecond, edge deployment, and basically a glimpse at the future of serverless. Ned explains why this might be WASM’s breakout moment—and why Azure should probably start taking notes. https://cloudnativenow.com/features/akamai-allies-with-fermyon-to-advance-wasm-adoption/

📨 And finally, Troy Hunt—yes, *that* Troy Hunt from HaveIBeenPwned—got pwned himself. A very convincing phishing attack stole his Mailchimp credentials and leaked 16,000 email addresses. While the fallout isn’t catastrophic, it’s a humbling reminder that no one is immune. Chris breaks down what went wrong, what to do better, and throws a little shade in the name of cybersecurity hygiene. https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/security-expert-troy-hunt-lured-mailchimp-phish

In this episode, we discuss the European Court of Justice's decision forcing Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland, marking a major moment in corporate taxation within the EU. We also dive into Microsoft's breakthrough in quantum computing, as they announce the creation of 12 error-corrected qubits, a step forward in the notoriously difficult area of error resilience. Lastly, we explore OpenAI's "Strawberry" model, designed to improve reasoning in AI, and the latest drama involving OthersideAI's inflated claims about their new AI model, Reflection. 

Links: 

• The EU Takes A Big Bite Out Of Apple
• Quantum Update - Error Corrected Qubit Count Alert
• OpenAI Announces Strawberry Models
• AI Dudebro Lies About Model Capabilities, Gets Caught, Hilarity Ensues

Ned and Chris discuss Amazon’s claim that their energy use is 100% renewable.

Wind Turbines Don’t Kill Birds and Amazon Doesn’t Use 100% Renewable Energy

Amazon claimed to be 100% renewable, but Amazon Employees for Climate Justice argues that the company hasn't met its climate pledges, and even threatened a walkout. In this episode, Ned and Chris discuss the growing energy demands of data centers, noting that despite efficiency improvements, their power consumption is set to double by 2026. The guys also share electrocution stories and explore modern sustainability, alternatives to oil, and advancements in solar and wind power. They also examine Amazon’s recent efforts, like ordering 100,000 electric vans, signaling possible positive changes ahead.

Links

• Amazon’s Story About Being 100% Renewable May Have Been Written By AI
• The Theory and History of Peak Oil 
• Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2023 Fact Sheet 
• Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project 
• Amazon Climate Justice Research - Amazon’s 100% Renewable Claim is a 22% Reality 
• Amazon’s Mississippi Datacenter Plan Includes Real Renewable Power Sources 
• International Energy Agency - Electricity Analysis 2024 to 2026 

ESXi Free is Dead, Cohesity is acquiring Veritas Data Protection, Forrest Brazeal Announces Kubernetes Resume Challenge, and Nginx is Being Forked Because Russia?!

• Nginx Being Forked Because Russia
• ESXi Free is Dead
  • Since the very early days of VMware, there has been a free version of ESX you could run in perpetuity without paying for a license.
• Forrest Brazeal Announces Kubernetes Resume Challenge
• Cohesity is acquiring Veritas Data Protection

Get ready for an electrifying ride through the history and evolution of supercomputers! From the groundbreaking Cray-1 to today’s mind-blowing El Capitan, we cover it all—with tangents about Interstellar, floating-point math, and why your iPhone is basically a mini-supercomputer. Join Ned and Chris as they unleash chaos on computing history! 🤖💻✨

What’s Inside:  
📚 Seymour Cray: The genius who made supercomputers... and left his own companies  
🔥 From mega-flops to exa-flops: Explaining performance in layman’s terms  
🌍 Supercomputers solving global warming (well, trying...)  

Take Our Survey!
💬 We want to hear from you! Visit https://chaoslever.com/survey and share your thoughts before the month ends.

Links:
- TOP 500 Linear Graph: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOP500#/media/File:Supercomputers-history.svg
- FLOPS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_point_operations_per_second
- TOP 500 64th edition: https://top500.org/lists/top500/2024/11/highs/
- Cray History Timeline: https://cray-history.net/2021/07/19/cray-timeline-documents/
- Cray Background: https://www.invent.org/inductees/seymour-cray 
- Cray-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1
- Sneakers scene: https://youtu.be/coDtzN6bXAM?si=JvAwJb416pxRuANq&t=43 

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome, Alleged Humans  
01:28 Interstellar: Did We Learn Anything?  
04:15 What Makes a Supercomputer "Super"?  
10:12 Seymour Cray: A Singular Visionary  
23:08 The Cray-1: Breaking Barriers in 1975  
36:40 From Supercomputers to HPC Clusters  
48:55 Modern Era: GPUs, Exa-Flops, and El Capitan  
01:20:00 Fun Facts: Your iPhone = A Supercomputer in 2010?!  
01:40:00 Wrapping It Up: Sneakers and PlayStation Supercomputers  

Let us know your favorite fact from the episode in the comments! 👇

This week on Tech News of the Week, Chris and I dive into four fascinating stories from the world of tech: from the limits of human brains to the rise of WebAssembly. Plus, we get philosophical about the ephemeral nature of the internet and marvel at the future of coding with AI.

Don't forget to complete our listener survey at https://chaoslever.com/survey It takes just a few minutes, and your feedback helps us make this podcast even better—or at least gives us something to ignore with flair.  

Here’s what we covered:  

🧠 **Why Your Brain is Slower Than You Think**  
Scientists reveal just how slow our thought processes are compared to our sensory input. Spoiler: Multitasking is still a myth.  
📎 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-human-brain-operates-at-a-stunningly-slow-pace/

🤖 **Free GitHub Copilot for All!**  
Microsoft is giving free-tier GitHub users a taste of AI coding. Write broken code faster and maybe fix it later—if Copilot is feeling generous.  
📎 https://github.blog/news-insights/product-news/github-copilot-in-vscode-free/

📜 **The Internet is Forever… Or Not**  
Nearly 40% of web pages from 2013 are gone, taking valuable information with them. Should we start printing PDFs again?  
📎 https://www.theverge.com/24321569/internet-decay-link-rot-web-archive-deleted-culture

🌐 **AMEX Goes Big with WebAssembly**  
American Express is using WebAssembly and WASM Cloud at scale, possibly heralding a new era for functions-as-a-service platforms.  
📎 https://thenewstack.io/amexs-faas-uses-webassembly-instead-of-containers/

Like, comment, and subscribe for more weekly tech musings! 🚀

 Football season is back, and with it comes a reminder of how the NFL has driven significant technological advancements in broadcasting. From the introduction of multi-camera setups and color TV in the 1950s to the creation of instant replay and the telestrator, the demand for better football viewing experiences has led to innovations that have reshaped how all forms of media are consumed. Modern technologies like RFID tracking and real-time 3D replays continue this trend, showcasing how football's influence extends far beyond the field and into the world of big data and cutting-edge broadcasting techniques.

Links: 

• NFL Throwback Highlights: The Greatest Game Ever Played
• What did ancient statues really look like in their time?
• The first game broadcast in color - UC vs UPenn, Franklin Field, Phila
• The First Instant Reply - Army-Navy game, 1963
• The Thin Yellow Line - Virtual First Down Markers 

 Remember the movie **Hackers** and its fictional supercomputer, The Gibson? While The Gibson might be fantasy, mainframes are still very much a reality in our modern computing world!

In this episode, we'll journey through some legendary Hollywood computers, like the WOPR from *War Games*, before zooming into the real-world star of the show: IBM's **z17** mainframe, powered by the *insanely powerful* Telum II chip. Yes, IBM is still cranking out new mainframes, and guess what? Banks, airlines, and more are still using them!

And did you know 2024 marks the **60th anniversary** of IBM's **System/360**? We’ll explore why this groundbreaking machine changed computing forever and how mainframes remain relevant today – from handling *huge* data loads to their legendary reliability and security.

🖥️ Why do mainframes still exist in a world full of cloud computing and Linux? 🤔 What makes these machines the go-to choice for big institutions like banks and airlines? We'll break it down for you and take a nostalgic stroll through computing history. 

Links: 
- **Magnetic Core Memory:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory 
- **System/360:** https://www.ibm.com/history/system-360 
- **Mainframes are relevant!** https://futurumgroup.com/insights/mainframe-trends-in-2024-navigating-innovation 
- **Telum II Chip:** https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/08/27/ibm-shows-off-next-gen-ai-acceleration-on-chip-dpu-for-big-iron 
- **What is a mainframe?** https://www.ibm.com/topics/mainframe 

This week on Chaos Lever, we take a detour through a moldy book, moldy cheese, and somehow land at a celebration of women in tech history. Because that’s how this show works. We kick things off with a hot take on Who Moved My Cheese? and an uncomfortably enthusiastic ode to Gorgonzola, then accidentally spiral into a cinematic sadness spiral featuring Robin Williams. You’re welcome?

From there, it’s a genuine salute to some lesser-known (but no less badass) women who shaped the technology landscape. We’re talking Bletchley Park, US Navy Code Girls, early human computers, and the pioneers who helped birth the GUI and the Internet as we know it. There are historical facts, dubious metaphors, and a surprise cameo by the first-generation Prius. I'd say blink and you'll miss it, but this is a Prius we're talking about.

So if you’re into awkward transitions, wildly underrated tech heroes, and a sprinkle of righteous rage, then buddy, have we got the episode for you.

📎 LINKS
Chaos Lever Website → https://chaoslever.com
Code Girls of the US Navy → https://usncva.org/history/women-in-cryptology/world-war-ii-code-girls.html
The Rose Code → https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53914938-the-rose-code
Behind the Bastards - Steve Jobs → https://youtu.be/aEv08Zzunfc
That good government tech book Ned forgot → https://www.recodingamerica.us
Mashable article →  https://mashable.com/article/unsung-women-in-tech
Women of Bletchley Park → https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-27898997
Hedy Lamarr → https://www.history.com/articles/hedy-lamarr-inventor-frequency-hopping-wifi
Annie Easley → https://www.nasa.gov/history/history-publications-and-resources/oral-histories/annie-easley-oral-history/
Dr. Adele Goldberg → https://www.extremenetworks.com/resources/blogs/women-who-changed-tech-dr-adele-goldberg
Steve Jobs is a nutbar → https://www.uniladtech.com/apple/why-steve-jobs-soaked-feet-in-toilet-water-926274-20240628
Megan Smith on Net Neutrality → https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/11/14/u-s-cto-on-net-neutrality-critics-are-you-supposed-to-argue-with-physics/

AI's infrastructure, from the coding languages that power the models, to the networking that connects it all. Plus, a look into what effects this has on our planet.

AI's Infrastructure: How It's Built and Powered

Ned and Chris embark on a journey through the world of AI infrastructure, touching on key software and hardware components that make AI tick. From the basics of Python and TensorFlow to the power-hungry NVIDIA DGX servers, this episode covers everything you need to know about the backbone of AI. They also explore the rapid world of InfiniBand networking, highlighting its importance as well as the challenges it faces against Ethernet advancements. Finally, Ned and Chris reflect on the environmental impact of AI's power consumption, humorously suggesting we might need to find a new planet or a better power source sooner than later. 

Links:

• I bet OpenAI has published something about their stack… sorta
• According to a post from 2016, OpenAI was using Python, TensorFlow, Numpy, Keras, and Anaconda
• TensorFlow is a machine learning library with APIs available for Python and C++
• Numpy is a Python package developed to support scientific computing
• Flyte, a graduated project from the Linux Foundation that leverages Kubernetes
• Nvidia H100 Spec Sheet
• DGX SuperPod
• Tensor Cores and CUDA cores, what is the difference?
• Nvidia helpfully posted some example code using the cuDNN library
• The Infiniband standard is a different protocol than Ethernet
• Ultra Ethernet Consortium is focused on developing an open standard that meets or exceeds what Infiniband does today
• Remember when Crypto was using as much power as the country of Argentina
• AI is already on pace to match that by 2027
• Microsoft’s AI for Beginners site to get down some of the terminology and lab time
• You may also want to take a beginner course on Python

This week In Tech News of The Week, headlines suggests that there are advancements in PCI 7 development, confirmed instances of problematic behavior by Facebook, potential security improvements for SS7, increasing email security requirements driven by Google and Yahoo, and much more!

Links:

• PCI 7 Coming Along Nicely
• More Shitty but-only-SUSPECTED Facebook Behavior Proven Real… Again
• SS7 Might Finally Get Secure
  • SMS and why it’s a security nightmare
• Email Security Mandates Becoming Mandat-ier Thanks To Google And Yahoo

This week on Tech News of The Week Ned and Chris discuss zScaler's security status, Asahi Linux's new milestone, vulnerabilities in VPNs related to DHCP, and Congress's failure to maintain broadband discounts.

Links: 

• zScaler Wasssssssssssss.. NOT Hacked. Or Were They? I Mean Probably Not But Still
• Asahi Linux Reaches New Milestone
• VPNs Attackable Via DHCP Mechanism That Has Little To Do With VPNs
• Congress Still Sucks - Drops Broadband Discount Ball

 Gallium Is The New Black | Flexible Chips, AR Glasses, and More Tech News

In this episode, we explore cutting-edge tech like Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) semiconductors, the potential of flexible processors like Pragmatic Semiconductor’s Flex-RV, and the future of augmented reality. Plus, we discuss SoftBank's latest investment in OpenAI and the rise (and fall) of AR headsets like Microsoft's Hololens.

 - Gallium Is The New Black: https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/29/pragmatic_semiconductor_flexrv_chip/
 - SoftBank Invests in OpenAI: https://www.reuters.com/technology/softbank-invest-500-mln-openai-information-reports-2024-09-30/
 - Meta's Orion AR Glasses: https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/28/meta-rethinks-smart-glasses-with-orion/
 - Microsoft Discontinues Hololens: https://www.uploadvr.com/microsoft-discontinuing-hololens-2/ 

Welcome to the Chaos Lever podcast! In this episode, we're sharing some of our favorite (and most cringe-worthy) disaster recovery stories as Chris and I relive our days in the IT trenches. From accidentally shutting down a whole data center with the push of a button to a missing utility server derailing an entire cloud migration, we’ve seen it all. If you’ve ever wondered how NOT to handle DR or just need a good laugh, you’re in the right place. 😅⚡  

We’ll talk about lessons learned the hard way—like why servers named "util01" are always critical, why you should *actually* test your DR plans, and why a bad backup can ruin your entire week. Whether you’re an IT pro looking for a relatable rant or someone curious about the chaos behind the scenes, you’ll enjoy this wild ride through tech disasters (and recoveries). 💾🔥  

Thanks for hanging out with us and listening to our stories of near-catastrophes and occasional triumphs. If there’s a topic you want us to cover—or if you just want to share your own war stories—hit us up! You made it all the way to the end, so reward yourself with a seat on the couch and a nice, quiet pilot light DR plan. You’ve earned it. 🎙️🛋️  

This week on Tech News of The Week Ned and Chris talk about an AI that no one likes seeking a buyer for a ridiculous amount of money, AI for terminal emulators, the deprecation of NTLM and VBScript, and a big recall from Microsoft. 

Links: 

• AI Company No One Likes Seeking Buyer For Preposterous Amount
• AI Is Coming For Your… Terminal Emulator??
• NTLM and VBScript Are Finally Being Deprecated
• Microsoft Decides To Take Its Spyware Reputation To The Next Level With Recall

Leave us a Voice Mail! Go to https://pod.chaoslever.com/ and click the microphone in the lower-right-hand corner. 

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris get some feedback from a listener, cover NIST’s new release, dispel some rumors about the death of tape, opine on the massive botnet takedown, and talk about an Apache project exploit. 

Links: 

• NIST Releases new version of SP 800-171
• The News Of Tape’s Death Is Much Exaggerated
• Massive Botnet Taken Down By The Treasury Department For Some Reason
• Some Apache Project With A Weird Name Is Being Actively Exploited

Elon Musk Ordered to Return Massive Tesla Compensation Package, RTO Does Nothing for Productivity, President Biden Vows to Veto Changes to SEC Breach Rules, and more!  

• Elon Musk Ordered to Return Massive Tesla Compensation Package Due To Being a Liar
• Return to Office Does Nothing For Productivity
• Ivanti Connect Secure Determined To Be Too Flawed To Live By CISA
• SEC Breach Rules to Stay, For Now
  • Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure and such rules shall have no force or effect.”

AT&T has filed a lawsuit against Broadcom, accusing the company of forcing it to purchase unwanted subscription software to maintain support for existing VMware licenses. Windows on ARM has arrived as a competitive platform, security vulnerabilities in Zyxel networking gear, and Intel's struggles to regain market dominance amid significant financial losses and operational challenges.

Links:

• Court Case: AT&T Accuses Broadcom of Doing All The Things That Broadcom is Doing
• Windows ARM Is Finally Here
• SMB Networking Gear Company Zyxel Alerts About a Lot of CVEs
• Intel Isn’t Doing Too Hot

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris release their frustrations on OpenAI’s decision to withhold a ChatGPT cheat-detecting tool, lay into Intel for laying off thousands of employees amid financial chaos, time travel with hackers who are reverting Windows updates, and grab their gardening tools for the latest North Korean laptop farm arrest.

Links:

• OpenAI Has A Tool To Help Stop ChatGPT Based Cheating But Won’t Release It
• Intel Isn’t Having The Best Week Ever
• A Flaw In Windows Update Allows Attackers To Downgrade PCs
• Laptop Farm in Tennessee Working For North Korea

Welcome back to Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest and weirdest stories in tech. We're a week behind because Chris decided to lose power—how selfish! But we’re back, and we’ve got four spicy news stories to dive into. Let’s go!  

🧠 **Meta Wants ARM-Made Chips**  
ARM might start making its own chips, and Meta is reportedly first in line to buy them. This is a big shift for ARM, which has historically just designed and licensed chip architectures rather than manufacturing its own. If true, this could shake up the chip industry and make ARM a competitor to companies it currently licenses to. The first chips are rumored to launch this summer, so we won’t have to wait long to see what happens. Will this push companies toward RISC-V? Fingers crossed!  
🔗 https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/13/arm-is-launching-its-own-chip-this-year-with-meta-as-a-customer

📖 **Facebook’s AI Reads Minds (Kind Of)**  
FAIR (Facebook’s Fundamental AI Research unit) teamed up with scientists in Spain to create a machine that can read your mind—well, sort of. By analyzing brain activity using M-E-G and E-E-G, they achieved an 80% accuracy rate in predicting what subjects were typing or saying. Right now, the tech is clunky and requires a controlled environment, but smaller, scarier versions are likely on the way. What could go wrong?  
🔗https://www.techspot.com/news/106721-meta-researchers-unveil-ai-models-convert-brain-activity.html

💰 **SolarWinds Goes Private for $4.4B**  
Remember SolarWinds? The company that got hit with a massive supply chain attack in 2020? Well, private equity firms have decided it’s still worth squeezing for cash. Silver Lake and Tomo Bravo bought up a majority stake, and now TurnRiver is taking the whole thing private for $4.4 billion. Expect less innovation, more “cost optimization,” and an eternal cycle of rent-seeking. Somewhere in Middle-earth, Sauron is proud.  
🔗 https://www.darkreading.com/cybersecurity-operations/solarwinds-private-billions

🖥️ **AI is Just Fancy Copy-Paste, Confirms Study**  
A new report shows that AI-assisted coding is leading to lower code quality. GitClear analyzed 200 million lines of code and found that, surprise surprise, AI-generated code is often just old code copied and pasted with minimal thought. Google’s own research backs this up, showing rising defect rates in published code. Microsoft even warns that overreliance on AI is killing critical thinking skills. So, uh… we’re definitely headed toward a bright, bug-free future, right?  
🔗 https://www.gitclear.com/ai_assistant_code_quality_2025_research

This week we get into Facebook's ongoing saga of being the actual worst, a massive Google acquisition, some shady AI data scraping, and why the FCC is basically handing over rural America’s internet to the wolves. Buckle up.

📘 Facebook is Literally the Worst, Part One: Leadership Edition 
Mark Zuckerberg tries to suppress a former Facebook exec’s memoir, *Careless People*, and accidentally Streisand-effects the entire thing. From board game tantrums to predatory ad targeting of teens, this segment is a greatest hits of dysfunction. LINK: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/careless-people-facebook-memoir-1235299645/

💰 Google Buys Wiz for $32 Billion 
Remember when Wiz said no to $23 billion and wanted to IPO instead? Well, turns out $32 billion can change a lot of minds. What does this mean for multi-cloud security? Spoiler: nothing good. LINK: https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/google-agreement-acquire-wiz/

🤖 Facebook is Literally the Worst, Part Two: AI Shenanigans 
LLaMA, Facebook's open-source AI darling, was apparently trained on a treasure trove of pirated books and papers from LibGen—with exec sign-off. Internal emails show employees questioning the legality while still hitting "Download." Classic. LINK: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/libgen-meta-openai/682093

📞 Say Goodbye to Your Copper Lines 
FCC’s new head Brendan Carr wants to let ISPs rip out copper lines without proving they’re replacing them with better service. It’s deregulation theater at its finest. Rural internet users, prepare to get fleeced. LINK: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/fcc-chairman-brendan-carr-starts-granting-telecom-lobbys-wish-list/

Welcome back to another episode of *Tech News of the Week!* This week, we dive into some fascinating developments in quantum computing, corporate drama at Meta, a potential shake-up in the networking industry, and security vulnerabilities in Apple Silicon chips. Buckle up—it's going to be a wild ride.  

🔬 **Photonics for Quantum Computing**  
Quantum computers are finicky beasts, usually requiring extreme cold to keep their delicate qubits from falling apart. But what if we could use *light* instead? Canadian startup Xanadu is tackling this challenge with its photonic quantum computer, *Aurora*. Their modular system could make quantum computing more scalable and affordable—if they can solve the usual qubit problems. Does this deserve a full episode? Chris, get on it. 😆 https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/30/1110672/this-quantum-computer-built-on-server-racks-paves-the-way-to-bigger-machines/

📢 **Zuckerberg Complains About Leaks… in a Leaked Meeting**  
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, recently expressed frustration that everything he says leaks… in yet another leaked meeting. The irony is thick. Meta’s once-open town halls have turned into tightly controlled sessions, yet the leaks keep coming. Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn’t the employees but the guy in charge? One commenter summed it up best: “pre-divorced sh*tweasel.” https://www.404media.co/zuckerberg-says-everything-i-say-leaks-in-leaked-meeting-audio/

🛑 **DOJ Blocks HPE-Juniper Merger**  
HPE’s $14B acquisition of Juniper Networks has hit a major roadblock. While Europe and the UK gave it the green light, the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in, citing concerns over market consolidation. The WLAN space is already dominated by a few major players, and the DOJ isn’t keen on reducing competition further. Meanwhile, HPE and Juniper insist this merger is "pro-customer"... for reasons. https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/30/hpes_acquisition_juniper/

🔓 **Apple Silicon Chips Have Security Flaws**  
Apple’s M-series chips have been crushing the competition, but they’re not invincible. Researchers found vulnerabilities—SLAP and Flop—that allow sneaky memory access. While these attacks are difficult to pull off, the fact that they’re possible at all is concerning. Apple hasn’t responded yet, but maybe, just maybe, CPUs don’t *need* speculative execution anymore? Just a thought. 🤔 https://predictors.fail

📩 Got thoughts? Want to share expert insight? Hit us up at ChaosLever.com (but no collect calls, please). See you next time! 👋

Ned and Chris discuss the 'Secure by Design' initiative, debating its effects on tech innovation and cybersecurity in the fast-paced tech world.

The Secure by Design Debate

In this Chaos Lever episode, Ned and Chris tackle the "Secure by Design" concept, inspired by a report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). They discuss how security can be built into software from the start and the challenges this poses for developers under pressure to deliver quickly. They debate whether government rules help or hinder tech progress, and what this all means for the future of safe and innovative software. 

Links:

• CISA's Report on Secure by Design Software
• Response from Shortridge Sensemaking

Ned and Chris give a very brief overview of BGP, its place in the history of the internet, and how it works today.

It’s a Confusing Day in the Neighborship

Sure, Kim Kardashian broke the internet that one time, but she’s not the only one capable of such a feat. In this episode, Ned and Chris recount the tale of how Verizon and a BGP optimizer took large swaths of the internet offline in 2019. This leads them into the intricacies of border gateway protocols, tracing its evolution from a temporary solution for NSFNET in the 1980s to a foundational element of internet routing today. Along the way, they explore version four's operational details, including key attributes like local preferences and AS path length.   

Links

• BGP Deep Dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVo6cDnQQm0 
• BGP defined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Gateway_Protocol 
• ASN Allocation: https://www.nro.net/about/rirs/statistics/ 
• Three napkins protocol: https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/69048160/the-three-napkins-protocol-quick-fix-for-early-internet-problem-left-web-open-to-attack 
• Or was it the TWO Napkins protocol?!?: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-two-napkin-protocol/?key=the-two-napkin-protocol 
• Allegheny and DQE mess up the internet: https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-verizon-and-a-bgp-optimizer-knocked-large-parts-of-the-internet-offline-today/
• NSFNET: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Foundation_Network  
• NSFNET Backbone: https://new.nsf.gov/impacts/internet 
• Leading Tier 1 ISPs: https://macronetservices.com/who-are-the-leading-global-tier-1-isps/ 

Blogspot declares war on AI, a security exploit in Apple Silicon, Hotel hacking for fun (and terror!), and more!

• Blogspot-Wannabe Medium Declares War on AI Created Content
  • A Flood of Garbage AI submissions basically ruining SciFi Zine Clarkesworld 
• FCC Finally Updates Broadband Speeds
• Apple Silicon Chips Have Hardware Level Exploit That Could Expose Encryption Keys
• Hotel Hacking for Fun and Terror

Welcome to another round of tech news! This week, we're diving into the resurrection of a once-popular social media site, the EU's big bet on RISC-V, fresh zero days for VMware, and Broadcom's bold money-making moves.

🎯 **Reddit's Co-Founder Wants to Fix Social Media... With More Social Media?** 
Alexis Ohanian, one of Reddit’s original creators (the one who *doesn’t* suck), is teaming up with the founder of Digg to bring it back from the dead. Digg was a big deal in the mid-2000s before it collapsed under bad management, but now it’s making a comeback with AI in tow. Will it be the next big thing or another failed revival? Only time will tell. Want to get in early? They’re taking email sign-ups now. 
🔗https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/technology/digg-alexis-ohanian-kevin-rose.html

💾 **The EU Goes All-In on RISC-V for Supercomputing** 
Europe is pushing hard for digital independence with a $260 million investment in RISC-V-based supercomputing chips. The project, named DAR (Digital Autonomy with RISC-V for Europe), aims to develop three chiplets for high-performance computing. It’s a bold move to move away from x86 and ARM dominance, but can they deliver on their aggressive timeline? 
🔗 https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/07/dare_europe_risc_v_project/

⚠️ **Three New VMware Zero Days—Because One Isn't Enough!** 
VMware ESX is under attack again, with three fresh zero-day vulnerabilities actively exploited in the wild. The worst of the bunch (CVE-2025-22224) lets attackers execute code on an ESXi host. Microsoft actually reported these to Broadcom, which is a fun little twist. If you haven't patched your VMware hosts yet, now would be a *really* good time. 
🔗 https://support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/support-content-notification/-/external/content/SecurityAdvisories/0/25390

💰 **Broadcom's VMware Cash Grab is Working... For Now** 
Broadcom is cashing in on its $69 billion VMware acquisition by slashing products, jacking up prices, and locking in big customers. The strategy seems to be working—at least in the short term—as revenue soars. But with frustrated customers looking for alternatives, could VMware's long-term future be in jeopardy? Competitors like Nutanix are already gaining ground. 
🔗 https://investors.broadcom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/broadcom-inc-announces-first-quarter-fiscal-year-2025-financial

That’s it for this week! Like, subscribe, and maybe, just maybe, we'll see you again next time. 🚀

In this episode, Ned and Chris examine classical computing fundamentals, breaking down complex topics like Turing machines, the von Neumann architecture, and the role of logic gates in computing. They explain how binary operations, logic gates, and transistors come together to form the foundation of modern computers. They also get into a discussion of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) vs. x86 architectures and the trade-offs between speed, efficiency, and complexity in modern processors.

Links:

xkcd Purity: https://xkcd.com/435/

Turing Machine: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-machine/ 

Von Neumann Architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture 

Half Adder: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/half-adder-in-digital-logic/ 

This week’s main dish? Agentic AI and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). What the heck do those mean? Why are they being compared to USB-C? And why should you care unless you’re an executive with a robot butler? Ned breaks it all down while Chris offers the occasional therapy check-in. Spoiler alert: MCP is the plumbing behind smarter AI assistants, but whether we trust them with our calendar (or our lives) is still up for debate.

Oh, and yes, there’s a “Silver Spoons” reference, some Carlton love, and a side quest into RESTful APIs because this is Chaos Lever and we can’t stay on the rails. Literally. We try to unpack whether MCP could be the REST of the AI world or just another shiny-but-useless indoor train. Buckle up.

🔗 LINKS
Model Context Protocol: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/introduction
The Train: https://external-preview.redd.it/T4x6zmXqtoaJQxw8uhtcNdquSLFHualiTg1Gnac_ihA.jpg?auto=webp&s=6b728fb53bfab7cbb77d1bc54714f9362d33c4b5

Unpacking the growing level of phishing scams with the latest data, trends, and defenses in cybersecurity.

The Fight Against Digital Deceit

Ned and Chris discuss the alarming rise in phishing scams as detailed by Proofpoint's latest report in this episode. They explore how phishing attacks have evolved from emails to more sophisticated methods like telephone-oriented attack delivery (TOAD) and business email compromises (BECs). With a focus on the latest data and trends, this episode highlights the critical importance of advanced security measures and the necessity for updated and effective security training to combat these ever-evolving digital threats. 

Links:

• The Wonderful World Of Phishing Attacks Keeps Getting Wonderfuller
  • Real Life Example: Executive Tricked Into Giving Scammers $50,000 Cash
  • Dice.com was recently compelled to share a blog post warning people against “Phishing Scams Presenting Themselves As Recruiters.”
  • John Oliver did a damning report about 

Welcome to our 2025 Predictions episode! This week, we dive into the future of tech with bold forecasts on RISC-V, AI advancements, cloud innovations, and the evolving landscape of tech giants. From potential Google breakups to OpenAI's sustainability challenges, we’re covering it all. And yes, things might get a bit chaotic—this *is* Chaos Lever, after all! 🌐💡  

We’ll talk about why RISC-V could disrupt the chip market, whether Microsoft will finally adopt S3 API support, and why the future of WebAssembly could change how cloud services work. Plus, we take a hard look at the future of TikTok in the U.S. and Meta's ongoing legal troubles in the EU. Get ready for hot takes, cautious optimism, and some wishful thinking about what 2025 has in store for tech!  

Stick around to see how your predictions align with ours—and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments!  

---  

**LINKS**  
💻 Official Site: https://chaoslever.com

---  

Tell us—what are your boldest predictions for 2025? Do you think we nailed it or missed the mark? Let us know!

Ned and Chris discuss IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp and the implications for the tech and DevOps communities.

IBM’s $6.4 Billion Acquisition 

In this episode of Chaos Lever, Ned and Chris discuss IBM’s significant acquisition of HashiCorp, a deal valued at $6.4 billion. They look into the implications of this merger for the tech community, oversee HashiCorp's journey from Vagrant to the role of Terraform in infrastructure as code, and speculate on the future integration within IBM's ecosystem. This episode also covers broader tech trends, mergers, and the impact of corporate culture on acquired entities!

Links: 

• IBM has entered into an agreement to acquire HashiCorp 
• It’s been almost five years since IBM acquired Red Hat for $34B in 2019
• Revenue was $57.7B In 2023, it was $61.8B
• IBM has acquired 19 companies since Red Hat.
• There’s a really good article from Fintan Ryan on Medium

This week in Tech News of The Week Ned and Chris discuss a variety of recent tech headlines, an influencer's negative impact on Humane AI, Google Drive's new dark mode, the controversial debut of Airchat, and the rising threat of the Latrodectus malware loader!

Links:

• Humane AI Pin Sucks, Influencer Blamed For Killing Company
• Google Drive Gets Dark Mode; I’m Irrationally Excited About It
  • Dark Reader
• Airchat Bursts Onto The Scene To Make Us All Dumber
• New Malware Loader Latrodectus Making More And More Inroads With Bad Actors

Join Ned and Chris in this episode of Chaos Lever, where they explore the fascinating and sometimes bizarre history of email and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Special guest Dylan Beattie, software development consultant and creator of the Rockstar programming language, shares his insights on how email evolved from early telegraph systems to the global communication tool we rely on today.

**Key Topics Covered:**
- The origins of SMTP and email's predecessor, telegraph systems
- Why email became the default communication tool, despite its flaws
- The first spam email and its lasting legacy
- The quirks and limitations of SMTP, including its security flaws
- Modern efforts to secure email with protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

If you're a fan of tech history, email protocols, or just enjoy hearing about the wild west days of the internet, this episode is for you!

Welcome to another week of tech news! Let’s dive into the biggest stories making waves:  

📢 OpenAI promised a data opt-out tool for creators all the way back in May 2024... and where is it? Nowhere to be found! Despite pledging to let creators keep their work out of AI training, no tool has emerged. Critics argue that opting out shouldn't even be the creator's job—data collection should require explicit consent upfront. And while the online ad industry says, "That would destroy us!" many are saying, "Good." Meanwhile, sketchy companies like RHEI.ai are already trying to pay creators for their content. Suspicious much? LINK: https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/01/openai-failed-to-deliver-the-opt-out-tool-it-promised-by-2025 

🔌 The EU's Common Charger Directive is here! USB-C is now the standard for most wired gadgets sold in the EU—no more digging through piles of mismatched chargers. While laptops have until 2026, most other devices need to comply immediately. Even Apple has bowed to the USB-C mandate. This is a win for anyone tired of juggling countless proprietary cables! Time to responsibly recycle that drawer of tangled cords.  LINK: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/usb-c-is-now-a-legal-requirement-for-most-rechargeable-gadgets-in-europe/

⭐ GitHub’s star system is in trouble! Stars are supposed to highlight popular open-source projects, but millions of fake stars from bot accounts have skewed the system. A recent study found that out of 610 million stars, 4.5 million were fake! There are even websites where you can *buy* stars. If fake reviews can plague Amazon, is it really a surprise that open-source projects are getting hit, too? LINK: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/over-31-million-fake-stars-on-github-projects-used-to-boost-rankings/

💻 Windows 10 isn’t going anywhere! Despite Microsoft’s push for Windows 11, over 62% of users are still sticking with Windows 10—and that number keeps growing. With stricter hardware requirements and user resistance to change, many can’t (or won’t) upgrade. Support for Windows 10 is set to end in October 2025... but will Microsoft extend the deadline, or will they finally give us Windows 12? The clock is ticking. LINK: https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/02/windows_10_grows/

Thanks for joining us—see you next time! 🎙️

Ned and Chris discuss the complexity and real-world implications of quantum computing.

Quantum Queries 

In this episode of Chaos Lever, Ned and Chris explore quantum computing, unpacking the science of qubits and superpositions. They explain how quantum computers operate on principles fundamentally different from classical computers, highlighting this emerging technology's potential and limitations. Ned and Chris also tackle the excitement around quantum computing, discussing its slow progress and the significant technological hurdles yet to be overcome.

Links: 

• We haven’t talked about Quantum in a while - but ScienceDaily keeps their eye on it
• Microsoft Explains Qubits - With Maths And Pretty Pictures!
• IBM Condor Quantum Computer Has 1,121 Qubits… Now What
• Microsoft Azure Quantum Computing Pricing Is As Confusing As Quantum Computing
• LINK: Bad forbes Article called “Quantum AI is Closer Than You Think

NYC passes law to limit AI discrimination, Google ditches egress charges (sorta), Someone compiled the Mother of All Breaches, and Cerabyte’s glass etching archives aim to replace tape for long-term storage.

• NYC passes Law Aiming To Limit AI Discrimination In Hiring- it’s Super Ineffective!
• Google Ditches Egress Pricing, Sorta
• Someone Combined PII From Thousands Of Data Breaches Into One Super Breach
• Tape Is Dead, Long Live Tape!

🎈 Farewell to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, whose leadership made significant strides in broadband access, net neutrality, and cybersecurity initiatives. Her final acts defended free speech, but concerns loom with her likely successor. https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/read-jessica-rosenworcels-farewell-message

🤖 Microsoft is cramming AI into everything, but at a cost—literally. With Copilot features now included in subscriptions, expect prices to jump by 40%. Plus, they’re throwing in the Designer app for AI-powered image editing. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/01/16/copilot-is-now-included-in-microsoft-365-personal-and-family/

🔒 The FTC is holding GoDaddy accountable for years of inadequate security measures. A new settlement requires them to implement real safeguards—but no fines yet. If you're a customer, it might be time to explore other options. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-takes-action-against-godaddy-alleged-lax-data-security-its-website-hosting-services

📉 Stack Overflow usage has plummeted 76% since ChatGPT entered the scene. With fewer quality contributions, the future of community-driven programming help is uncertain. Who will AI steal from next? https://devclass.com/2025/01/08/coding-help-on-stackoverflow-dives-as-ai-assistants-rise/

 Welcome to another episode of Tech News of the Week, where we break down the hottest stories in technology with a dose of snark and insight. This week, we’re diving into Google’s AI extravaganza, GM’s retreat from robo-taxis, quantum computing milestones, and Microsoft’s push for eco-friendly data centers. Grab your coffee and let’s get into it!

Google’s AI Blitzkrieg 🚀
Google is doubling down on artificial intelligence, unveiling a slew of announcements including Gemini 2.0, a next-gen model with audio and video capabilities, and ASTRA, which can summarize videos and answer questions. They also revealed Trilium, an AI training chip, and Jules, an AI coding assistant capable of fixing bugs. But don’t get too excited—most of these features are still in development, with limited demos and no hands-on access yet. For now, it’s a lot of promises, but we’ll see how it shakes out in January. Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/gemini-2-0-googles-newest-flagship-ai-can-generate-text-images-and-speech/

GM Pulls the Plug on Robo-Taxis 🚗
GM is merging its Cruise division into its Super Cruise engineering team and stepping back from the robo-taxi race. This comes after a string of incidents, including a high-profile crash that led to California revoking Cruise’s operating license. With plans to integrate the tech into personal vehicles instead, GM hopes to salvage their investment. But for now, fully autonomous taxis are hitting a red light. Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/11/gm-is-giving-up-on-cruise-robotaxis-pivots-to-personal-autonomous-vehicles

Google’s Quantum Leap 🧮
Google made headlines with Willow, a quantum chip boasting over 100 quality qubits. They claim it can complete specific computations that would take conventional supercomputers septillions of years. While this sounds groundbreaking, the practical use of this technology is still unclear, and some remain skeptical of Google’s claims. However, advancements in error rates and quantum stability are undeniably impressive. Read more: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/quantum-computing/google-claims-its-new-willow-quantum-chip-can-swiftly-solve-a-problem-that-would-take-a-standard-supercomputer-10-septillion-years

Microsoft’s Water-Cooled AI Data Centers 🌊
Microsoft announced a shift to water-saving, closed-loop cooling systems for their AI-heavy data centers. These new systems reduce water usage in drought-prone areas like Phoenix, Arizona, and are part of a larger push to retrofit existing facilities. It’s a smart move to address the environmental toll of AI, though some wonder why this wasn’t done sooner. Read more: https://siliconangle.com/2024/12/10/microsoft-previews-new-water-efficient-data-center-design/ 

Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to subscribe, share your thoughts in the comments, and take our listener survey at https://chaoslever.com/survey. See you next week! 

Welcome back to another jam-packed episode of Tech News of the Week! Chris and I are diving into four big stories that caught our attention this week. From sketchy ISP routers to OpenAI’s latest security fail, let’s break it all down.  

🔹 **Stop Using Your ISP Router—Seriously**  
If you're still using the router your internet provider gave you, it's time for an upgrade. Not only are ISP-provided routers outdated and full of security holes, but they might also be spying on you—and, in some cases, even harboring actual bugs (the creepy-crawly kind). A new website, [RouterSecurity.org], lays out just how bad these devices can be. Investing in a good third-party router is a small price to pay for better security and performance. Also, if you haven’t looked into mesh routing yet, you’re missing out!  LINK: https://routersecurity.org/ISProuters.php

🔹 **AWS Goes on an AI Spending Spree**  
Amazon reported solid Q4 earnings, but apparently, a 19% growth in AWS wasn't enough to impress investors. So, what's Amazon’s solution? Throw more money at AI! They’re planning to invest a whopping $100 billion in AI hardware this year, with much of that going toward NVIDIA-powered chips. The hope is that supply chain issues will ease up, allowing AWS to scale its AI efforts even further. But will all this spending pay off in the long run? We’ll see.  LINK: https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2025/Amazon.com-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-Results/default.aspx

🔹 **Phishing Tests Are Getting… Meaner?**  
We all know about phishing tests—those fake scam emails companies send to see if employees fall for them. But lately, these tests have been pushing the limits, with some using emotionally charged messages like fake Ebola outbreaks or rescinded bonuses. The Wall Street Journal reports that while these tactics may be effective, they’re also making employees furious. One particularly controversial example? A phishing email promising free Eagles tickets to people in Philadelphia. Ouch.  LINK: https://www.wsj.com/tech/cybersecurity/phishing-tests-the-bane-of-work-life-are-getting-meaner-76f30173

🔹 **OpenAI’s New Model Helps… Write Malware?**  
Well, that didn’t take long. OpenAI's new "secure" GPT-4 variant, O3 Mini, was supposed to be better at filtering out harmful requests. But within days, a security researcher tricked it into generating code to exploit Windows security processes. OpenAI insists the exploit wasn’t serious, but the fact remains—these models still aren’t as locked down as they claim. Maybe a little more internal testing before release wouldn’t hurt?  LINK: https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/researcher-jailbreaks-openai-o3-mini

That’s it for this week! Drop a comment, let us know your thoughts, and we’ll catch you in the next one. 🚀