Last Week

• NexusTek published Clearing the Path: A Roadmap to Clarity in a Shifting VMware Landscape

• NexusTek published NexusTek Delivers New AI-Enhanced Email Security to Stop Today's Evolving Threats

• NexusTek published Case Study: Building a Proactive IT Foundation for an Industrial Tank Manufacturer

• Jason Pullo published Hidden Hazards in the Rough: Top Ten IT Issues in Golf, Part 2

• NexusTek published Top 5 Things We're Excited About at AWS re:Invent 2025

This Week

This week is is Gartner IT IOCS in Las Vegas.

76 weeks and the future of Hot Fudge Daily

Also, as a side note, today marks 76 weeks of the Hot Fudge Daily format. Next week, I'll be starting a brand new format. I'm excited to flip the script a bit. Thank you for subscribing and reading!

Hot Fudge Daily Digest

📈 Markets Monday for 2025-12-01

My screener was particularly selective today with just two "picks and shovels" purveyors of the AI compute trade, showing that the market is still hungry for specialized GPU cloud providers aka Neocloud providers.

🔥 Hot Takes Tuesday for 2025-12-02

💰 + 🤖 Funding for AI anything companies continues.

• Tutor Intelligence (AI warehouse robots): $34M

• Nevis (AI wealth management agents): $35M

• Ricursive (AI for accelerating AI chip design): $35M

• Zafran (AI threat exposure management): $60M

• Gradium (AI voice startup): $70M

• Axiado (AI server chips): $100M

• Black Forest Labs (AI image generation models): $300M

🤪 Wacky Wednesday for 2025-12-03

Trying a new format. Wacky. Wayback. Whoa.

First, a wacky wonderful video. Second, a wayback nostalgia tome. Third, a whoa we're getting older moment.

Wacky Wonderful

NASA Rocket Engine Fireplace - 8 Hours in 4K

• 8 hours of 4K

• Cozy rocket roar

• Holiday ambiance

Wayback

Segway intro on Good Morning America Dec 3, 2001

• Diane Sawyer rolling

• Charles Gibson bumping

• Dean Kamen inventing

Whoa

Poems can trick AI into helping you make a nuclear weapon

• Jailbreaking chatbots

• Safety guardrail bypass

• Rhymes with destruction

🔙 Throwback Thursday for 2025-12-04

5 Years Ago: December 4, 2020

Claims of quantum supremacy are part of the news hype cycle.

10 Years Ago: December 4, 2015

The beta release of Let's Encrypt drives HTTPS certification to far more websites faster than ever before.

15 Years Ago: December 4, 2010

🛜✈️ Lufthansa brings in flight WiFi to intercontinental flights.

Interesting Links for Thursday 2025-12-04

(trying a new idea out...)

• Google Workspace Studio: A no-code tool for creating AI agents

• Anthropic IPO Prep: Reports value the company at +$300B

• Marvell to acquire Celestial AI: Advancing optical computing in future data centers

• AWS and GCP Multicloud Networking: Streamlined multicloud networking between AWS and GCP

• HPE's $931M Private Cloud deal: It turns out that private cloud infrastructure has a market after all

I wonder out loud

(trying a new idea out...)

Has anyone written the book "Me Prompt Pretty One Day", yet?

✅ Final Thoughts Friday for 2025-12-05

🍿 + 💰 One big story this week was Netflix planning to spend ~$83B for Warner Bros Discovery to secure Warner Brothers studio, HBO, and Max.

🤖 + 💰 Also, big story for users of Limitless Pendant... Limitless is joining the Meta devices division. I guess this isn't shocking considering the increasing numbers of Meta glasses I've noticed at conferences.

🤔 While I've enjoyed using my Limitless Pendant, the company has been acquired by Meta... which is an ecosystem I try to avoid.

🗑️ So, my biggest story of the week is my plan to follow the instructions to download a copy of Limitless data and request deletion of Limitless data that I've enjoyed gathering since the first beta.

YMMV.

🔮 Sneak Peak Saturday for 2025-12-06

Friday is for burying news you hope people ignore or sleep through entirely. This Friday night, one story caught my eye like a fictional fiery flying creature soaring into the slow news day journalism night sky.

Meta's mixed reality glasses project, "Phoenix", is rising from the ashes not yet rising from the ashes, per a "leaked" memo. The timing of this leak avoids any immediate stock hit to the recent bump and misses the window for any of the weekend long-form think-pieces about Meta's other burning metaverse cash pile corrections.

#OpenToWork Weekly

I participated in a #NeverSearchAlone #JSC after rebooting Cuthrell Consulting and joining NexusTek.

I added those #OpenToWork from my LinkedIn network to this newsletter. Over time, we've grown an Alumni 🎉 section for those that transitioned to their next career adventure.

Alumni 🎉

• Congrats Brian Booden 🎉

• Congrats Sam Aiello 🎉

• Congrats Nathan Clyker 🎉

• Congrats Kelly Britt 🎉

• Congrats Tamera Rousseau King 🎉

• Congrats Thomas Chatham 🎉

• Congrats Dan Kelleher 🎉

• Congrats Jarrod Weise 🎉

• Congrats Karl Edwards 🎉

• Congrats Paul Lysko 🎉

• Congrats Bob Lima, PMP 🎉

• Congrats Rich Green 🎉

• Congrats Sheri Gearhart 🎉

• Congrats Shianna Maxwell 🎉

• Congrats Richard Arnesen! 🎉

Those in my network that are #OpenToWork:

• Mike Berteletti, CISSP - Experienced IT Professional | Infrastructure & Security

• Jennifer Fisher - Full-Cycle Recruiter

• Scott Place - High Performance Sales Rep

• Trevor Schulz - 20+ Years in Tech Sales | Loyal, Dedicated, and Ready to Work Today

• Elizabeth Quintanilla - Fractional CMO, Digital Marketing Consultant & Coach, Marketing Gunslinger

• Barbara Hadley, EdM, SPHR - Strategic HR Leader | Employee Engagement Expert

• Andrew Webber - Proven Leader | Consumer Product Innovation & Scaling

• Lida Tohidi - Award-Winning Product & Marketing Leader | Startup Advisor

• Gina (Gina Minks) Rosenthal - Global Product Marketing Manager | Technical Content Strategist

• Janel Van Beek - Business Strategist & Master Coach | Leadership & Change Expert

• Greg Phillips - Cloud Platform & Strategic Marketing Leader

• Ricardo Perez - Virtualization Architect | PowerFlex & VxRail Specialist

• Chris Mojica - Technical Sales & Solutions Architect

• Matthew Leib - Data Center, Cloud & Storage Architect | Technical Writer & Analyst

• Michael Joffe - Global Technology Leader | P&L Management | SaaS & OEM

• Colleen Coll - Event Technology & Digital Media Specialist | Live Reporting