✅ Final Thoughts Friday for 2024-08-30
I've got a jam-packed schedule with tech events, thankful for client work, and reflecting on big tech stories of the week.
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As a reminder, I’ve committed to four events for the remainder of this year.
AI Field Day 5 in Silicon Valley September 11-13, 2024 for Tech Field Day
Monktoberfest in Portland October 2-4, 2024
Cloud Field Day 21 in Silicon Valley October 23-25, 2024 for Tech Field Day
All Things Open in Raleigh October 27-29, 2024 for CLS
SXSW in Austin March 7 - 15, 2025
As for me, the week in review is about being thankful for new and ongoing client work and catching up with folks I haven’t spoken to for years. I’m back in the gym again to reach personal goals and continuing to put in time for my own personal projects that have nothing to do with technology.
Switching gears back to technology, the bigger tech stories this week seemed to be the next iPhone, zero-day SD-WAN exploits, Telegram, OpenAI, and Twitter/X. My thinking is this:
Techmeme: Apple announces a September 9 event at Apple Park with the iPhone 16 lineup, new Apple Watch models, and AirPods 4 expected; the invitation says “It's Glowtime” (Juli Clover/MacRumors)
By Juli Clover / MacRumors. View the full context on Techmeme.
As a long time owner of tiny iPhone devices, I am wondering when my personal preference ride ends. My current daily driver is an iPhone 13 mini and my small hands still miss the 1st Gen iPhone SE form factor. While I don’t see myself moving to a flip phone, foldable phone, or similar, there is a growing demand somewhere for growing phone sizes… but that’s not me, at least not yet.
Techmeme: Sources: China-linked hackers penetrated deep into two big US ISPs and several smaller ones in recent months, using a zero-day flaw in Versa Networks software (Joseph Menn/Washington Post)
By Joseph Menn / Washington Post. View the full context on Techmeme.
My early career in late 1990s telecom and the ISP / MSP business reminds me of a tale I heard about digital phone switching infrastructure (aka Digital Multiplex System aka DMS for short). Of the hundreds of security features that could be enabled in the modern digital switch, less than 20% ever were enabled. As for reasons why, the security features were considered at the time to be extra work to keep track of, the cost of setting up a bastion host for OOB OAM&P, or speculatively avoided to prevent degradation in performance when enabled them for ongoing operation. Plus, it was “just a phone switch” that would only impact a small blast radius, or so the thinking went. Fast forwarding to our increasingly connected world, this latest SD-WAN zero-day exploit highlights how making it easier for a bad actor to make an impact opens the possibility for a well funded team of bad actors that can have global blast radius reach.
Techmeme: France charges Pavel Durov for complicity in the spread of CSAM and other crimes on Telegram; Durov posted a €5M bail and prosecutors banned him from traveling (Gaspard Sebag/Bloomberg)
By Gaspard Sebag / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
No shade intended, but, I briefly used Telegram many years ago until I determined other alternative solutions were more appropriate for my use case. However, the amount of reductive tech press coverage concerning the CEO of a communications platform company being charged in the country of their citizenship for allegedly breaking laws only appears shocking if the assumption is that a CEO is somehow unable to be charged or is somehow above the laws of the land. It seems that the microwave oven timeline for justice, due process, and straw-man argument construction continues to accelerate in line with technology advancement.
Techmeme: Sources: Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, the three most valuable tech companies, are in talks to participate in a funding round that would value OpenAI at $100B+ (Bloomberg)
From Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
It is quite normal that the largest market cap companies on this planet are investing in what might become the next largest market cap company on this planet. Please wake me up when there is anything to see here other than [ checks notes… ] protecting the shared interests of said largest market cap companies. Funding does not necessarily guarantee success but it can go a long way to getting a seat at the table of a board of directors that has only recently added more established personalities and polished pedigrees.
Techmeme: Brazilian Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes orders X's suspension in Brazil after Elon Musk refused to name a legal representative in the country (Associated Press)
From Associated Press. View the full context on Techmeme.
Oh, what was I just saying about the audacity to hold a communications platform company operating within a country to uphold the laws of the land? Unposssible! Perhaps FAFO also stands for Forgot Another Financial Outcome.
Note: Some images via Unsplash
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Cuthrell Consulting LLCAttn: Jay Cuthrell1903 Live Oak St #92Beaufort, NC 28516-0092
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