Episode 103 - Big Tech Lobbying, Massive Security Camera Breach
Release Date: 03/16/2021
Epsiode 203: AI is Moving Fast, Killing IT Revisits the Cabana, & This Isn't Goodbye but See You Later
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: The Arms Race is Here...AI is Definitely Moving Fast, but Will It Break Things? ChatGPT is now integrated in Bing as “Prometheus.” That sounds ominous. But Bard is also coming. And now Ernie. And Claude. Soon there will be AI bots generating “conversations” and disrupting the search industry on all sides of the globe. Is that a good thing? Sample alternative tools - ...And also, apparently writing software is about to become a less-lucrative career path. --- Topic 2: Revisiting the Cabana... Four years ago, we set out to change the way our industry discussed...
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Episode 202: The Good Guys win the Cyber Wars, Scientist Using Wifi to See Through Walls, & AI and Ethics
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Score 1 for the Good Guys in the Cyber Wars In a significant development in the fight against ransomware, the FBI announces that they have shut down a notorious cyber gang after infiltrating their system months ago and secretly giving decryption keys to ransomware victims. Topic 2: Ummmm … This is Some Seriously Scary Big Brother Stuff Scientists have announced that they are able to see people through walls using WiFi technology. And not just the “heat blob” from Hollywood movies … but detailed movements and positions. On a scientific note, this is cool. On a security /...
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Episode 201: Jobs Again, FBI Crime Data is NOT Good, & First Personal Drone to be Produced by India
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Sorry: Let’s talk jobs. December: Total new jobs UP 235,000. That is despite the fact the enterprise companies (500 employees+) reduced jobs by 151,000 ← Great summary stats Spotify 600 (6% of workforce) Twitter 3,700 (50% of those who lasted this long) Salesforce 7,000 (10% of workforce) Microsoft 10,000 (5% of workforce) Tesla 10,000 (10% of workforce) Google 12,000 (6% of workforce) Amazon 18,000 (1% of workforce) Oh, and . . . Apple 0 (0% of workforce) - Minor adjustments at retail locations See also the big Layoff-Tracker Service at TrueUp -...
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Episode 200: Labor Hoarding, Tech Workforce 2023, We Got the Digital Workplace Wrong
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Small companies are “labor hoarding” while large companies are laying off. Keeping employees at any cost! Topic 2: Understanding the Dynamics of the Tech Workforce in 2023 Data Point 1: Tech Layoffs are Happening … But Not Because Tech is Suddenly Less Valuable Data Point 2: Tech Jobs are Less Attractive to Young Professionals Data Point 3: Shifting Preference for Generalists vs. Specialists … Plus a Mainstream Rise of “Business IT” Contributors Amazon layoffs delivered by email. ← Low class or just modern times? Topic 3: Cal Newport on the Digital Workplace: We...
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Algorithms in need of MGMT Training, Microsoft drops $1B on ChatGPT, & Apple to Create Their Own Chip
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Algorithms Need Management Training, Too! From Wired Magazine. Human beings excel at avoiding responsibility for difficult decisions. Management and personnel decisions are often difficult. Therefore, they are great candidates for turning decision-making over to the bots. What could possibly go wrong? Topic 2: Microsoft drops $1 Billion on ChatGPT I should have bought more Microsoft stock yesterday. :-) Looking to the true “next level” of product development. Microsoft was an early investor in ChatGPT Topic 3: Apple to drop Broadcom chip and make their own. Is this...
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Episode 198: the Generative AI Race, Last Pass Security Incident, and Intelligent Elevators
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Generative AI is Fun … Until the “Other” Guys Start Doing It Too China is aggressively building their own versions of generative AI platforms (with some obvious / inevitable filters) that do essentially the same thing as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. The question is whether they will be able to out-race us to the auto-content future … and whether that is a problem. Topic 2: LastPass - Lessons for the Channel Should we be worried? What do we expect from vendors? What’s reasonable and realistic? Is this worth discussing as a larger topic of always-on monitoring and...
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Episode 197: Military Fingerprints and Iris Scans on Ebay, the Remote Worker Whistleblower, Mab Simulates Time Travel with AI
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: For Sale on eBay: A Military Database of Fingerprints and Iris Scans Great topic for ITSPs - especially as clients get rid of equipment at the end of year. Old machines of all kinds might have sensitive data. Not this juicy, perhaps, but stories like this are great for you client-facing newsletters. Topic 2: The age of the work-from-home whistleblower Why are so many remote workers deciding to squeal on their companies? Topic 3: Man Simulates Time Travel So, what is our weekly update with AI? On the up-less existential-side, we have some fun: Time traveling with the aid of...
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Episode 196: Scammers Scamming the Scam, "Luddite" Teens, and the Drones are Here
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Meta scamming: Scammers Are Scamming Other Scammers Out of Millions of Dollars On cybercrime forums, user complaints about being duped may accidentally expose their real identities. Topic 2: Teens are Self-Liberating from Social Media ‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes Topic 3: The Drones Are Coming (to 22 Select Locations Around the Country … Within Driving Distance of a Wal-Mart) Wal-mart announces legitimate progress on rolling out drone delivery to customers in key metropolitan areas. The forecast is to expand to 34 stores in 23 cities by year end to reach a...
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Episode 195: The Bots are Here, AI Fiction Author, and Call Time on FAANG Stocks
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: The Bots are Coming for LinkedIn, Adding New Layers of Risk for Professionals and for Companies … but Especially for Recruiters Bots are everywhere on social media, and some platforms are doing more to combat them than others. Now that the bots are proliferating on LinkedIn, it’s vital for everyone to think about the layers of threat and the corresponding hygiene on the career-centric platform. Topic 2: How does AI write fiction (and online advertisements)? “Fluent BS” The term “Fluent Bullshit” was originally coined by The Verge: Topic 3: Investors Call Time On FAANG...
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Episode 194: Killer Robot Police, New Words for New Data Volume, AI Images--Good or bad?
The Killing IT Podcast
Topic 1: Should the Police have killer robots? San Francisco approves the use of robots capable of lethal force. Is this move inevitable, or are the arguments in favor of this just rare exceptions to the rule? Topic 2: Data Volumes are Increasing at Such a Fast Pace, We Need New Words to Describe Just How Much There Is And to absolutely no one’s surprise, businesses are struggling to afford the cost of managing all that data Data is the essential component of literally every dimension of the technology industry, and we’re producing more of it every day at literally astronomical...
info_outlineTopic 1: What works, works: Big Tech Targets DC via Old-School Media
Facebook, Amazon, and Google ads are blanketing inside-the-Beltway newsletters in a bid to rehab their tarnished reputations.
The big tech companies are getting ready to do battle. So they need to soften up members of Congress. Here’s the interesting part: They didn’t use social media to get the job done. They used good old advertising . . . in newsletters.
Of course we use this to look at the whole "Big Data vs. Congress" debate going on right now.
Link:
https://www.wired.com/story/big-tech-targets-dc-with-digital-charm-offensive/
Topic 2: Security Breach at Security Camera Company
IoT security came under a major attack in March. 150,000 Verkada surveillance cameras compromised by super simple hack. The "victims" were as widespread as you can imagine: Jails, gyms, Tesla, and more.
Never, never sell an internet-connected device without adding an additional layer of cyber security. That’s why “value added” resellers and service providers exist!
Link:
Topic 3: Massive Data Center Fire in Strasbourg, France
OVHCloud, Europe’s largest cloud provider, has massive fire affecting multiple data centers. OVHcloud's SBG2 data center in Strasbourg France was destroyed by a fire that also damaged SBG1. OVH manages four data centers on the same site, which we think is odd.
We look at several practices across industry and across the world.
Links:
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/fire-destroys-ovhclouds-sbg2-data-center-strasbourg/
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:-)