The Killing IT Podcast
IT authors and entrepreneurs Ryan Morris, Karl Palachuk, and Dave Sobel provide commentary on the changing world of technology opportunities and emerging tech. We want to expand the discussion from the SMB IT channel to all things tech - with one eye on the future and the other on profits. Join us!
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Episode 72 - Micro-Management, Chinese Sanctions, and Trifurcation of the Web
08/11/2020
Episode 72 - Micro-Management, Chinese Sanctions, and Trifurcation of the Web
Topic 1: Micro-Management 2020 How are managers doing in the world all-remote work? In particular, how are remote managers doing? We continue the discussion of whether we'll really go back to the office when all this is over. One element to watch: Not all managers trust employees and believe they can be effective without true hands-on management. We cover a few stats and give our impressions of the world ahead. Links: Topic 2: Sanctions against Chinese companies will have echoes inside the world of technology. As Chinese companies are sanctioned for human rights violations, our supply chain is affected. On top of that, these sactions lead to other forces in the world of online collaboration and the global inter-connected Internet. Sub-topics include human rights, cyber crime, overall regulation, and having the virtual world become the "real" world. Links: Topic 3: TikTok and Bifurcation of the Internet; and maybe Trifurcation, etc. Life after the Pandemic . . . What does TikTok mean? And does it matter whether it's owned by a U.S. company, in an inter-connected global Internet? Is TikTok any worse than Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other "western" countries just because the data goes to China vs. San Jose? :-)
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Episode 71 - Big Tech Businesses and College Evaluations
08/04/2020
Episode 71 - Big Tech Businesses and College Evaluations
Topic 1: The "Big Four" IT buisinesses grilled by Congress. Will there be any real aftermath to these hearings, or is this all just political showmanship? CEOs from Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google were grilled by Congress. We discuss what this might mean (or not). Sample Link: Topic 2: SolarWinds abdicates RMM. SolarWinds has announced that they're just going to use the Microsoft tools to manage patch management. Is this simply "opting out" of the RMM game, or a smart move acknowledging that Microsoft does it better. What does this mean to you as a SolarWinds user? And does it affect you if you use something else? And is there any long-term effect on the industry generally? We discuss. Link: Topic 3: Life after Covid: College Life Expectancy How will colleges survive in the long term, and how is this affected by the Covid? Scott Galloway had a great blog post - with a great graphic. He looks at how colleges will emerge from this strange time. Check out the comments as well. Love the graphic :-)
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Episode 70 - VC Funding, Crypto Currency, and Splinternet
07/28/2020
Episode 70 - VC Funding, Crypto Currency, and Splinternet
Topic 1: Tech VC funding down and moving sideways (not up) due to the pandemic. Funding for new ventures is being affected by the recession and the circumstances surrounding the pandemic. The change in money makes sense, but the response to social distancing is a new factor the venture capitalists haven't dealt with before. Related Link: Topic 2: Embracing Crypto Currency Bitcoin might not be taking over the world, but some very big financial outfits are building their own crypto currencies. We talk about what's really going on here (embracing blockchain), and more. Plus, of course, our commentary. Favorite quote: "Money is nothing but alphanumeric data and it would become alphanumeric data not in paper form, but in a form of arranged electrons and photons," Related Link: Topic 3: Life after Covid: The four Internets. Maybe five. We've talked before about the Splinternet - dividing the Internet between the U.S.-centric and China-centric models. This article proposes two more model: Euro-centric and India-Centric. Each has unique challenges, limitations, and opportunities. . . . On top of that, consider the emerging Quantum Internet, base on U.S.-centric Quantum computing initiatives. Related Links: Your feedback is welcome! :-)
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Episode 69 - EU Privacy, Twitter Hack, Ethical Explorer Pack, and the Future
07/21/2020
Episode 69 - EU Privacy, Twitter Hack, Ethical Explorer Pack, and the Future
Another fun show! Please give us your feedback. And share it if you love it! We start with a couple of major stories and finish with an eye on the future. Topic 1: EU says their privacy laws are not being enforced appropriately in the U.S. To make that point, a random group of hackers broke into a series of Twitter accounts. Question one: Are we doing enough to protect data privacy? Question two: Is it possible to get this right? Can you, as a solution provider, actually do a decent job to protect your clients? Links: Topic 2: “Ethical Explorer Pack” for developers. This is a cool offspring from the "Ethical OS" project. Basically, programmers wanna program. They want to create cool programs, games, and so forth. And sometimes they accidentally produce unintended consequences related to ethics and human interaction. In the best of worlds, this might have to do with blind spots. But sometimes the bias is built into the data and the processes themselves. Basically, this is an attempt to open developer's view of the world. At a minimum, keeping an eye on ethics is good for everyone. Link: Topic 3: Thinking about the quote from William Gibson: “The future is already here; It’s just not widely distributed.” As we look at all the "Covid" related changes, there's lots of speculation about how much of the change will stay. We start with the question, how much of the change we’re seeing is not new at all? A great example is Zoom. Many of us have been using Zoom and similar tools for more than a decade. What's "new" to one group is not new to everyone. Some of this is just cutting edge technology that’s just in the right place at the right time. Some is established technology that has just been waiting for an opportunity to shine. But perhaps most of it is very well established technology that has been proven in niches and is suddenly visible to a wider audience. We touch a bit on all of our favorite topics: RMM, remote tech support, food delivery apps, AI, etc. -- -- -- That's it for this week. Please give us a like, thumbs up, or whatever other goodness you can. Comments and questions welcome. :-)
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Episode 68 - AI Fights Covid on Mass Transit and Makes Deep Fakes Easier
07/14/2020
Episode 68 - AI Fights Covid on Mass Transit and Makes Deep Fakes Easier
Topic 1: AI - Take One: Fighting Covid on mass transit In Barcelona's subway system, AI is helping regulate airflows to fight the spread of Covid. Of course, that has implications for other diseases and other mass transit. We discuss what this means for you. Links: Topic 2: AI - Take Two: Creating Fake Journalists to Write Fake Editorials This is the kind of weirdness most of us weren't expecting from Artificial Intelligence. Now, on top of fake picture, fake profiles, and even fake videos, we now have entirely made-up background stories and profiles, with all the details. This affects many things, including, potentially, your client's reputation management. And, of course, the possibilities for phishing and related attacks is almost unbelievable. Links: Topic 3: Life after the Pandemic . . . Social Media Responsibility Once again, we look into the self regulation of social media. In the new again . . . Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and more. :-)
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Episode 67 - Regulations, Face-Changing Technology, and Social Media
07/07/2020
Episode 67 - Regulations, Face-Changing Technology, and Social Media
Topic 1: Regulations are real in Louisiana. Now moving to a city and state near you. Also, check out the new page on Facebook: (MSP Regulation and Legislation). Topic 2:Face-changing technology . . . with a nod to what this means for facial recognition. And maybe a quick discussion of Pandora’s box. Can we keep the genie in the bottle? Related Link: Topic 3: Life after the Pandemic . . . Revisit Social Media trying to figure out if (how much) they should limit content ? Of course we have opinions!
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Episode 66 - Limiting AI, Apples Buys an RMM, and more
06/30/2020
Episode 66 - Limiting AI, Apples Buys an RMM, and more
Topic 1: Limit AI Research before it happens? Wired reports that an AI algorithm that "predicts" criminality based on a facial recognition is drawing ire. Meanwhile, some AI experts are calling to stop this line of research altogether. Topic 2: Apple buys an RMM . . . Will this affect us? (and Dave notes his predictions along these lines). Note also Amazon’s new use of the term "managed service " with regard to their Honeycode project. Described online as a "managed service" you can buy. See . . . Topic 3: Life after the Pandemic . . . Will we actually get to attend anything in October? We discuss probabilities . . . and have some differences of opinion. :-)
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Episode 65 - Future Freelancing, MSP Benchmarks, and Future Agile
06/23/2020
Episode 65 - Future Freelancing, MSP Benchmarks, and Future Agile
Our sponsor today is PC Matic - Thank you! More info at -- -- -- Topic 1: Coming boom for freelancers? Part of the rhythm of the economy is that economic downturns result in new opportunities. This time, the question is, will this help independent IT consultants? Note: When decision makers are looking for special skills, they would rather hire an outside source rather than train someone in-house - even if cost is not a factor. Related Link: Topic 2: IT Glue released their 2020 Global MSP Benchmarks. A few notes. Around half (51%) of MSPs saw monthly revenue decreases as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, more than a quarter (29%) of MSPs saw their accounts receivable increase, showing more clients could not meet contract deadlines to pay for services. This survey did show a jump of prioritization of cybersecurity, from 27% of respondents in Feb to more than 50% in May. Old priorities were wiped away, replaced not only by cyber security but with customer churn, price pressure, and a second lockdown. Link: Topic 3: Life After the Pandemic . . . Increases in "Agile." We look at the business of the IT channel in the post-quarantine world … specifically how channel partners need to adapt the way they plan and operate, and how they engage their vendor partners. Things look like they're going to be a lot more Agile. If you're not in project management, you're still going to have to learn the terminology of PM very soon. Related Link: :-)
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Episode 64: Facial Recognition, the New Normal, and the 4-Day Work Week
06/16/2020
Episode 64: Facial Recognition, the New Normal, and the 4-Day Work Week
Special Note: This week's podcast is brought to you by our friends at Third Tier. For more information, visit . Topic 1: IBM and Amazon get out of facial recognition Major companies are backing away from developing and working with facial recognition technology. Issues include both the racial bias and the fact that they are working with police agencies. And then there was another shoe that dropped on the facial recognition topic. Other, older, related links: Topic 2: Let's Ban the term “New Normal” Everything changes all the time. We discuss whether the term "new normal" is actually useful at all. Hint: In a tech-centric world, this term just isn't very useful. We welcome your comments and feedback. Topic 3: Life after the pandemic -- The 4-Day Work Week This is a thread we’ve touched on in terms of the way people will work after the pandemic . . . but with more specific details and recommendations. Here's a recent article from a Canadian writer. :-)
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Episode 63 - Facebook Shops, Lobbying Efforts, and Current Events
06/11/2020
Episode 63 - Facebook Shops, Lobbying Efforts, and Current Events
Topic 1: Facebook Shops Will you (should you) set up a shop on Facebook? We give our perspective. Related Link: Topic 2: Lobbying by and for the IT Community Should we be lobbying on behalf of the IT Community? What does that look like? We discuss some of the major issues and what we think the (near) future might look like. Who should speak for us? Topic 3: How will we be affected by the current events and unrest, once the dust settles. Again, just our opinion. But we feel that we need to say something. Your feedback is always welcome! :-)
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Episode 62: Classrooms, Chromebooks, and Connectivity
06/02/2020
Episode 62: Classrooms, Chromebooks, and Connectivity
We have a bit of a theme going through all three of today's topics: Education. Topic 1: Google Classrooms - too meager? In case you haven't seen it, here is "Google Classroom." Google Classroom is super low tech. Is it too low tech? How much tech is needed in order to serve the education market? We discuss design, technology, and intended purposes. Of course this discussion touches on the topic of access to high speed Internet. More and more, true Internet access is becoming a requirement for education. Old link, but we all downloaded it before it became hard to find: Our saved version: Topic 2: HP Refresh / HP LIFE / Google Chrome books / the growing Digital divide HP has a great program to help get laptops (or desktop computers) into the hands of 1.5 billion students without computers. The HP Refresh software does a military wipe of the hard drive and then installs a Chrome operating system with a Zoom agent. We discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with bringing this basic technology to all the folks across the U.S. and the world. HP Refresh = Topic 3: Life after Pandemic - Classrooms and Connectivity We agree that the digital divide is real. And we think it might be getting wider. Again, we examine opportunities in the emerging environment. :-)
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Episode 61: LIVE Podcast - Burrito Delivery, Emerging Tech, and Your Favorite Accelerant
05/28/2020
Episode 61: LIVE Podcast - Burrito Delivery, Emerging Tech, and Your Favorite Accelerant
Recorded LIVE at the SMB Online Conference! (Conference attendees can see and listen to all four topics in the Conference downloads area.) Topic 1: Where do we stand on burrito delivery? Update on our year-old bet: Will your pizza (or burrito) be delivered first by flying drone or driverless car/robot? Well, that driverless car might have lots of fees attached (see New York Times). And of course industry news is hard to separate from "pandemic" news right now, but workforce slowdowns will affect the pace of technology adoption. Relevant links: Topic 2: Emerging Technology and Digital Transformation (Dave’s pet peeve) Wherein we explore the state of all this change in our industry. Are we there yet? Link: Topic 3: Life After the Pandemic How much will the IT consultant’s business go back to the old normal? Roundtable discussion. Karl says our definition of the network will be changed forever. :-)
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Episode 60: AI and VR in the Pandemic - and Spying on Employees from Now On
05/19/2020
Episode 60: AI and VR in the Pandemic - and Spying on Employees from Now On
Happy "Diamond" anniversary - 60 episodes! Topic 1: Are we breaking artificial intelligence? In this era of "pandemic," our behaviors are different from normal. That can be confusing for AI. In fact, it points out some of the weaknesses of AI data gathering, and how the models can wander off in the wrong direction. Topic 2: What happened with VR? This newsletter articles from Axios asks the question: Did Virtual Reality miss its big opportunity in this era of changing technology? And we ask . . . If not this time, should we be ready for the next opportunity? Or will VR's time to enter the mainstream never come? Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic - Spying on Employees. Employers have used technology to keep track of employees for a long time. Now we're taking that to new heights. What lessons will we learn from spying on employees during the new work-from-home movement? Great quote: “... the new office life is likely to become a pulsating den of surveillance.”
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Episode 59: Facial Recognition, Facebooks's Supreme Court, and Sales After the Pandemic
05/12/2020
Episode 59: Facial Recognition, Facebooks's Supreme Court, and Sales After the Pandemic
Please check out our new “Killing IT Reading List” - at . Promo: Join us at the SMB Online Conference May 19-20. As a bonus, we're doing a "Killing IT Live" session. Check it out at . Topic 1: The Next Evolution of Facial Recognition - good and bad Makers of facial-recognition technology are trying to figure out how to adapt to a world in which people cover their faces to avoid spreading disease. Scouring social media and other apps for facial recognition database. Is this legal? Ethical? Also - finding children who have been victims of crimes. Sounds good, but also has some drawbacks. Links: How Well Can Algorithms Recognize Your Masked Face? Topic 2: The Facebook “Supreme Court” Facebook announces a board beyond Mark Z. to determine what is acceptable on their platform. Self regulation takes a different spin when you get to appoint the board that governs you - in hopes that governments won't. An interesting take-away for the previous two topics: Government regulation and self-regulation are important factors. You need to engage in these discussion with your clients. Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic - The Small Business Sales process What will change after we get to leave our houses? Some things won't go back. In addition, many people are now comfortable doing a totally-online sales pitch. Others are eager to get back to the way things were. We add our perspective. . . . This episode brought to you by Bob's Metal Bending Shop . . . :-)
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Episode 58: Virtual Events, Economic Speculation, and Office Space after the Pandemic
05/05/2020
Episode 58: Virtual Events, Economic Speculation, and Office Space after the Pandemic
Check out the “Killing IT Reading List” at . Topic 1: Virtual Events -- what you want to see A different kind of discussion here. Would you rather rush out from quarantine to a channel-focused event, or maybe a sporting event, a social event, or even a concert? We are still waiting for a "killer app" for online events. Topic 2: The Economy Where are we? Note: Wild speculation ahead! We are clearly on our our way to recession. How soon will we start to move out of it? How paralyzed are you by the statistics? What are the implications for business when there is so much uncertainty? In the previous topic we talked about the specifics of dealing with this regarding conference events. What about the rest of our economic interactions? And the big question: What is the best approach for your business to take to guarantee survival in this environment? Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic - Office space after the Pandemic You have to dig a bit . . . but there’s a mention of voice-activated elevators. Dave’s favorite interface! Related Link: -- -- -- AD spot: As you all see too frequently, ransomware continues to bypass antivirus and malware protection, and backups will only help you clean up the mess, that is if they aren’t wiped out during the attack. CryptoStopper is specifically designed to add a layer of protection beyond antivirus and anti-malware by detecting and stopping actively running ransomware on a network in less than a second. It uses bait files to detect and stop ransomware, and runs parallel to, and as part of your current security stack. Add CryptoStopper as protection to an unavoidable threat, differentiating your service offering and allowing you to secure your customers and their trust. For more information or to get a 4-month free trial, visit :-)
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Episode 57: Amazon CX, IT Communication, and Blockchain in the Grocery Store
04/28/2020
Episode 57: Amazon CX, IT Communication, and Blockchain in the Grocery Store
Topic 1: CX Rules - Amazon makes it a little more difficult to buy - so you won’t be disappointed. Amazon has made several subtle changes in response to the current economic environment. Specifically, their delivery times and inventory are no longer as reliable as they used to be. One example: They have reduced the “people also bought this” option so they are not automatically pushing items that might be out of stock or take longer to fulfill. They are also pushing Kindle versions of books, which never go out of stock. The goal is to minimize bad Customer Experience and maximize the positive Customer Experiences they can. Their assumption is that people are keeping track of who serves them well and who disappoints them during these unusual economic times. Related Link: Topic 2: Good Communication is critical in these unusual times. Here we highlight a disagreement between an IT department and the people they serve. IT is more critical than ever to every organization - and they need to learn how to work with people! Links: The School Board tried to blame IT… and IT struck back and got their letter in the WaPo: Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic - Cutting edge technologies to help keep the food chain safe. IT - and blockchain in particular - will change the way we keep food safe. Key quote: “Gartner predicts that 20% of the Top 10 grocers worldwide will be using blockchain by 2025 to improve food safety and traceability by creating a secure ledger documenting its production, quality and freshness.” Link: :-)
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Episode 56: A Community Rant, Plus Notes on Education and the Role of Robots
04/21/2020
Episode 56: A Community Rant, Plus Notes on Education and the Role of Robots
Topic 1: Community Rant - Helping your clients with finances. We cannot believe that there are "experts" recommending that you lower your rates, forgive debts, and be the financial support for your clients in the rough times ahead! Just because someone bought time on a webinar does not mean that you should be taking their advice. There are ways to cut costs by offering different services. Please do not create a "loss leader" service in a recession! Cash remains king. Please do not simply charge less and give the same level of service: That breaks the value chain. Topic 2: Education and Online Learning - How much opportunity is here? Sending all the student home has made clear that there are systemic problems with "universal" online education. Many students do not have the Internet connectivity or resources to simply switch to online education. In addition, there are lots of teachers who have never used online tools to deliver education. And if all the colleges go online, they will compete in ways they have never competed before. Yes, there's "opportunity" here, but the world is more complicated than that simple statement implies. Topic 3: Technology after the pandemic - Robots Welcome to take some jobs We were struck by the article below on how robots are being accepted instead of feared, at least in one specific example. There have been commentaries for years about the fear of robots taking jobs. But in this strange pandemic context, we're finding that robots are welcome to do certain jobs that humans aren't interested in doing. Link: :-)
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Episode 55: Our Channel Boost, Setting Prices, and Cities after the Pandemic
04/14/2020
Episode 55: Our Channel Boost, Setting Prices, and Cities after the Pandemic
We start with a nerdy technology catch-up. Topic 1: The Channel Gets a Boost We all know that there's been a spike in spending as the first response to the big stay-at-home orders. So most tech companies have seen a good influx of cash. We recommend that you consider this a short-term boost. CRN thinks it will be a longer term up-tick. We discuss. Related Link: Topic 2: Should you lower rates in response to economic downturn? (No. Here’s why.) We agree that this is definitely NOT the time to lower your rates. Raise value, but don't lower rates. Create new offerings, if you need to, but always be strategic about it. When you rely on recurring revenue, dropping rates is a critical error because it echoes across the months ahead! Topic 3: Technology after the pandemic - Changes to cities Once everyone moved "home" in response to the pandemic, some of them may not go back to the office. How extensive will this be? Many people will go back to business as usual, but we also think there will be a lot of permanent changes. This includes restaurants, commercial offices, and many of your clients. Feedback welcome! :-)
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Episode 54: 3D Printing To the Rescue; Selling Today; and Telemedicine
04/07/2020
Episode 54: 3D Printing To the Rescue; Selling Today; and Telemedicine
Intro chit-chat is all about baseball and getting back to "normal." Topic 1: 3D Printing Comes to the Rescue We had earlier said that 3D printing was no longer interesting. Well, now it's interesting again! Several groups have grown up around the use of 3D masks and spare parts in response to the current virus problems. Once you start following these links, you'll certainly find more. Links: Topic 2: Is it Okay to Start Selling to Clients? (Short answer: yes.) Yes, of course - but don't be a jerk about it. Your clients need you. And they need you now. And they will need you for the duration of the "social distancing." A few people are saying that it's bad form to be marketing and selling right now. We take a different perspective: If you are selling the right thing to help clients and make their business better, then they will be grateful that you helped them in their time of need. Related Link: Topic 3: Life After Pandemic - Telemedicine: Come with us now . . . to the future. When all this hub-bub is over, how will the future world be changed by things we are doing in the middle of this unique point in history. Today we look at changes in telemedicine that we think will last forever. Link: and always keep an eye on . . . The Medical Futurist: Stock mentioned (this is not an endorsement): TDOC. :-)
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Episode 53: Corporate Winners; Uber vs. L.A.; and "Life After" Robotics
03/31/2020
Episode 53: Corporate Winners; Uber vs. L.A.; and "Life After" Robotics
We're staying positive in our home offices. But we've all got lots of online activity scheduled. Mentioned: Dave and Sharon's how-to video on hosting a virtual party: and how to be a good guest at a virtual party: . Topic 1: Companies "doing it right" in the current environment. Many companies are suddenly facing a new environment - and one most were not prepared for. How are they responding? We talk a few winners out there. For example: Paypal is delaying payments on their "Working Capital" loans for ninety days. BMW - suspend the next two payments. Both of these are designed to avoid a negative hit on your credit report. Messaging with the right tone: Examples include Nike "Stay together at home," Coca Cola, and Burger King. Topic 2: L.A. Wants Uber's Big Data Uber Sues the city of Los Angeles over access to their big data. And of course this leads into the discussion of data availability . . . and even into our previous conversation about the Contract for the Web. Link: Related link: Topic 3: "Life After" segment: Robotics & automation Wherein we pick a technology to discuss what it will look like “after” the current economic downturn is over. Related Link: Book referenced: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink. Also a great audio book. :-)
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Episode 52: Women on the Web - and Life After Covid
03/29/2020
Episode 52: Women on the Web - and Life After Covid
We have a special guest this week - Marie Rourke, Channel Chief Chief Channel Strategist at WhiteFox Marketing Inc. So after our catch-up on what we're doing under quarantine, we jump in. Topic One: Tim Berners-Lee’s Open Letter on the Role of Women on the Internet Tim Berners-Lee is widely regarded as the creater of the World Wide Web. Link: https://webfoundation.org/2020/03/web-birthday-31/ He pinpointed three areas that cause women harm. The first is access. The second is online safety. And the third area that requires attention is gender discrimination that arises from bad engineering/algorithms. As Dave points out, we brought in Marie so we don't have just three guys talking about the role of women. Thanks for the assist, Marie! Topic Two: Ten trends for a post virus world Here's the article that got us kick-started. We really encourage you to read this. https://skift.com/2020/03/17/after-the-virus-10-consumer-trends-for-a-post-coronavirus-world/ We enjoy some of the new things people are trying. And we're happy to see some cool, cutting-edge technology coming into its own. We are particularly intrigued with who is in the right place in the right time. Topic 3: New Show Segment - Life After Covid Putting it all together, we introduce a new show segment. We're going to speculate from time to time on what we think the "new normal" will look like once we are allowed to leave our houses and wander out into the world. We each give some opinions about what has changed and won't completely change back after the quarantine is over. :-)
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Episode 51: MSP Legislation, Covid-19, the Economy, and Robot Bosses
03/17/2020
Episode 51: MSP Legislation, Covid-19, the Economy, and Robot Bosses
First, a note from listener Chris. Issue clarification Link: Topic 1: Louisiana Secretary of State on Defining MSPs We do a little analysis on Dave's interview on his Business of Tech podcast. What consitutes “malpractice” for an IT service provider? “If self-regulation doesn’t work, the government will step in.” And, of course, how will legislation define MSPs and MSSPs? Link: Topic 2: COVID-19 and a Possible Recession I'm not any of us understands what's going on with the Covid-19 virus or with the economy. But there definitely appears to be a connection. We analyze a bit for the IT consultants out there. Link: Topic 3: Robots aren't taking our jobs, they are becoming our bosses An interesting twist from The Verge. AI without humanity can be very stressful. We speculate on what this means and where we're heading. :-)
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Episode 50: Covid-19, China-Influenced Technology, and Billionaire Entrepreneurs
03/10/2020
Episode 50: Covid-19, China-Influenced Technology, and Billionaire Entrepreneurs
What?! Episode 50 of the Killing IT Podcast! We're almost at the one year mark. And we really appreciate your listenership. Topic 1: Coronavirus / Covid-19 and Traveling Today All of us travel a lot. Some notes from Karl’s travels to Thailand and Cambodia, etc. We also discuss several industry cancellations and the longer-term implications of this on the broader economy. Since this recording (a couple days a go), CompTIA's CCF, Channel Partners, and South by Southwest have all canceled. Other comments on caution vs. panic, supply chain, Christmas sales, and more. Related links: Topic 2: Technology in Cambodia Karl’s notes from the field, particularly with regard to sensitive humanitarian work and the effect of China/Cambodia relationships. How this relates to the sex slave trade. The economics of working with other countries. Again: How does this reality affect your, your clients, and their business? Related Link: Topic 3: Defending High-Tech And Its Billionaire Entrepreneurs Dave declares a rant regarding a commentary piece in CRN magazine. Ryan and Karl throw in their two cents. Related Link: That's it for this week. Comments welcome. There's a form below. More information on Karl's SMB Online Conference here: .
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Episode 49: State of the Channel, a Dubious Award, and Low-Code Development
03/03/2020
Episode 49: State of the Channel, a Dubious Award, and Low-Code Development
Karl's out this week in Cambodia, so Dave and Ryan are the hosts this week. Topic One: ChannelPro State of the Channel Info ChannelPro released their "State of the Channel" report. Dave and Ryan focus in on a few key data points. Number one is, who is a managed service provider (as compared to those who claim to be one). Once again, we question whether the term MSP has any meaning any more. Next point - Only 67% are paying attention to security challenges. Does that make sense? Other topics include cloud revenue and management of cloud infrastructure. Related link: Topic Two: Asigra warns that RMM platforms with integrated backup will be the next attack vector for ransomware Dave and Ryan see this as FUD - fear, uncertainty, and doubt. This "press release" is really just a marketing piece. Dave says this is an irresponsible move in the current era of outright attacks on MSPs and our clients. Ryan takes the argument to a different level and wonders whether they're really saying that aggregated services are naturally less secure. Dave awards to Asigra the first ever Troll Press Release Award. Link: Topic Three: Low code and no code application development Ryan digs into new changes in "Low Code" application development. This concept hit Gartner's radar about three years ago. There are now hundreds of services that make low-code and no-code development easy to use for the masses. This is very interesting to folks in IT who used to make a bunch of money selling programming. Now clients can do a lot of this themselves. But is it a good idea? Will clients destroy their own security? Or perhaps they'll create something that's not backed up, not documented, not encrypted, etc. Link: :-)
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Episode 48: Cloud Neutrality, Evil Tech Companies, and the Speed of Innovation
02/25/2020
Episode 48: Cloud Neutrality, Evil Tech Companies, and the Speed of Innovation
Topic 1: Cloud Neutrality You've heard of Net Neutrality. This is pretty much the same thing, with the premise that access to the cloud suffers the same potential problems. Dave's favorite quote: “It would be as though Ford, GM, and Toyota had built the Interstate Highway System using private dollars and then charged tolls to other car makers to use it.” Ryan wonders whether the cloud has become a utility. And Karl's not sure there's actually a problem here. Related link: Topic 2: The List of Evil Tech Companies A while back we looked at the most trusted brands. (Remember? The postal service came out on top.) This time we're looking at companies accused of "evil" actions, large and small. Our two biggest observations are: 1) We could come up with more (better) examples than some of these; and 2) Some of these are just businesses pursuing their own interest. Where do you cross the line into evil? And do you need to have evil intent to be evil, or can it be an unintended consequence? Related link: Topic 3: Why Isn't the Adoption of New Technology Faster? Background: Seth Robinson’s guest spot on Business of Tech: Why new technologies are not being adopted more rapidly. Related questions include how much of the push-back is from entrenched incumbents vs. technicians who are simply not trained on the new technologies. The never-ending lesson is to keep grabbing onto the future. That's where all the opportunity is. Related links: :-)
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Episode 47: The Fragility of Big Data; a Challenge to CompTIA; and 3D Printing a Building
02/18/2020
Episode 47: The Fragility of Big Data; a Challenge to CompTIA; and 3D Printing a Building
Topic 1: Performance Artists Games Google Maps We start out a bit light hearted here - but it also shows the fragility of our systems. A performance artist in Berlin demonstrated the fragility of the Google Maps system we all rely on by dragging 99 cell phones to fake a Google Maps traffic jam. Our spin is that this is funny but also has some lessons for all of us on big data and how pretty much anything can be gamed. Relevant Link: Topic 2: CompTIA Lobbying - But Are They Representing Their Members? Listener Keith alerted us to this one. Legislation working its way through the Washington State legislature addresses the "Right to Repair." That is: Do you have the right to fix electronics even if the manufacturer would rather have you throw them away? We tend to stay away from politics here, but this is an interesting case. Among those giving testimony was Anna Powell, Directory of State Government at CompTIA, speaking on behalf of the large manufacturers but claiming to speak on behalf of CompTIA. We discuss whether this is appropriate, given the position of many CompTIA members who make a living fixing these devices. We hope this will open a discussion within CompTIA about how they represent their membership. Note: All three hosts here are CompTIA members. We also note that we have not been involved in the lobbying efforts of CompTIA in the past. Please give us your feedback! Relevant Links: Topic 3: 3D Print buildings . . . and then we lighten up a bit. The race is on to 3D print larger and larger buildings. A new record has recently been set. More records are set to fall - mostly in the Middle East. Benefits include getting construction going in places where the delivery of materials is difficult. Another benefit is that 3D printed buildings can be of designs that would be impossible with standard building techniques. In this example, a 6,900 square foot building was created with three employees. We discuss the technology here, the opportunities we see, and the future of 3D printing as a service. We think Dave's beginning to agree with Ryan and Karl here. :-)
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Episode 46 - Ransomware Brings Politicians After Managed Service Providers
02/11/2020
Episode 46 - Ransomware Brings Politicians After Managed Service Providers
One way or another, politicians are getting into our business . . . Just two topics this week as we spend extra time on one very big subject. A slightly different format for us, but we can't cover the first topic in ten minutes. . . . and I think we'll return to this one again and again. Topic 1: MSP sued over Ransomware - to the tune of $1.7 Million! But even more importantly, our entire industry got a wake-up call as the politicians started paying attention to onslaught of ransomware attacks. We think this is big news for the industry! Topic 2: U.K. Allows Huawei to Build Parts of 5G Network Does this matter? We think it does - and it affects our business as the 5G networks get rolled out. More and more we are being sucked into a world we don't control. But you can't unplug, can you? :-)
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Episode 45: Shifting Retail, Hand-Scanning, and Some Positive AI Stories
02/04/2020
Episode 45: Shifting Retail, Hand-Scanning, and Some Positive AI Stories
Topic 1: Record store closings in 2019 - and Amazon is buying up old malls. Both of these trends have been going on for a couple of years. Malls are consolidating, so there are fewer of them, but the ones that survive appear to be doing well. So maybe the nature of retail is changing. At the same time, Amazon is climbing off the screen and back into the real world. Related Links: Topic 2: Amazon proposes hand scan payment. Karl thinks that this will work for a short period of time. So it's a temporary solution, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't endorse it. Dave is not so sure it's worth embracing. Ryan sees both sides. What do you think? And how might you integrate something like this into your clients' systems? Topic 3: Two “good” stories about Artificial Intelligence First, A group of Canadian scientists used AI to identify the spreading Corona Virus before anyone else, and they reported it to other scientists to verify that they were seeing what they think they were seeings. Second, You can now design your own cars (like Hot Wheels) and actually have them built. This is the democratization of some very high-end engineering. Or course we're very hopeful about the future! :-)
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Episode 44: Trust, Training, and Twin Technology
01/28/2020
Episode 44: Trust, Training, and Twin Technology
Topic 1: The Most trusted brand is the USPS! First, go check out the link: Trust is an interesting piece of brand value. It's very interesting to see who is trusted, who is not on the list at all, and how this varies by age. The actual question is, which brands do you trust to do the right thing. We assume no one is shocked that Facebook is not on the list. Also consider which companies you feel that you have a long-standing trust relationship with. Topic 2: Tech training vs. traditional higher education A recent article makes the argument that technical skills training does not replace a classic higher education. One of the key reasons is that tech skills age must faster. The good news is: This is not and "OR" discussion. You can get a 2- or 4-year degree AND take tech training as your career progresses. Education is very broken, but fixing it is critically important. Topic 3: IT, OT, and opportuni-T Once again Ryan beats the drum for digital twins. Here's a link to his recent blog post on the CompTIA web site: The big question is, what are some technologies that we're not paying enough attention to? Ryan's nominee is the digital twin. And in a bigger picture, are we going to be in the same business when we move from monitoring hundreds of devices to monitoring thousands of devices? And a related question is, how do we move from offering technical fixes to offering bigger picture consulting services? :-)
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Episode 43: Curating the Splinternet, and Debate About the Future of Technology
01/21/2020
Episode 43: Curating the Splinternet, and Debate About the Future of Technology
Topic 1: Misc. Threats for 2020 What are the effects of a future in which half the world uses an “Internet” with information curated by the Chinese government and half the world uses an Internet with information 90% curated by American companies? From a slightly different perspective this is not China and the U.S. so much as authoritarian and democratic. And the "free" part of the Internet is becoming divided between U.S. companies and European companies. Luckily for us, Ryan has lots of hands-on experience in China and other less-than-democratic countries. He considers looking through the lenses of "information" and "transaction." And what about "propaganda" in all of these subdivisions. . . . Or maybe there's a B2B Internet, a B2C Internet, and a C2C Internet? Link: Topic 2: Is the MSP market “Saturated”? What does that even mean? Is it possible? Premise: Lots of opportunity and growth lead to opportunities for managed service providers. But we often hear people say that the market is saturated, and no one challenges that assertion. We do. We think there's no support for the concept that the IT services market is saturated at any level. Related Link: Topic 3: Satya Nadella is worried that what we're doing won't last much longer. We're obviously in the middle of a massive technology boom. But it does not appear to be improving the entire global economy as one would expect. We quickly get into a discussion of the complexity of the economy. Lots of things are getting better, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying. There's clearly lots of innovation, but that doesn't guarantee specific economic benefits. Authors: Hans Rosling - Factfulness Robert Gordon - Rise and Fall of American Growth Related Links: :-)
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