Ned and Chris are back for one final ramble before they vanish into the summer ether like a Wi-Fi balloon over Cádiz. No, seriously—Ned might actually be in a balloon. This episode is one part announcement, one part ice cream therapy, and all parts Chaos Lever. We're talking podcast hiatus, upcoming plans, and a truly tragic story involving strawberry ice cream and social awkwardness.
🍦 We reflect on 3+ years of near-weekly episodes with zero concept of "seasons"
🎈 Learn how Ned records from exotic locations while pretending to work
📋 Listener survey incoming! You too can have your suggestions ignored in style
We'll be back in September with more structure, guests, and maybe even edited episodes (don’t hold your breath). Until then, enjoy the silence—or better yet, catch up on the old chaos.
LINKS
💬 Listener Survey – https://pod.chaoslever.com/survey
📅 Chaos Lever Archive – https://pod.chaoslever.com/episodes/
Spinning rust is still not dead. Despite what some all-flash evangelists want you to believe, hard drives have a lot of life left—and yes, we’re still talking about tape too. While Chris and I enjoy a week off, we’re revisiting one of our favorite topics: storage tech and the slow demise that never quite comes. Spoiler: if you thought 2028 would be the funeral for HDDs, you may want to reschedule.
In this trip down the byte-laden lane, we dig into Samsung’s monster 256TB SSD, the physics-defying logic of QLC vs. SLC flash, and why PureStorage is ready to bury HDDs... despite being wildly optimistic. And yes, there’s tape—because nothing dies on the internet or in data centers. Ever.
Grab a Slurpee, sit back, and marvel at the storage wars that never end. Because if there’s one thing you can count on in tech, it’s that someone is always wrong—especially when they say “never.”
📌 LINKS:
🔥 The world may be on fire, but at least we’ve got s’mores and dark chocolate (just not 98% cacao, thank you). In this episode, we dunk on tech billionaires with the finesse of a flaming marshmallow and explore the dramatic saga of WordPress—from its humble GPL beginnings to the ego-fueled chaos of its current overlord. Yes, Matt Mullenweg, we’re talking about you.
🧩 We dive into how WordPress became the most-used CMS in the world, why Matt Mullenweg keeps lighting metaphorical fires, and what the Linux Foundation is doing to put out the flames. Spoiler alert: it involves decentralizing plugin updates so Matt can’t go full dictator mode again. Also, there's jazz. Because apparently that’s part of the lore.
🤡 There’s a feud with WP Engine, a cease and desist, plugin repos being snatched like toys at daycare, and even a checkbox to swear fealty before accessing your plugins. Welcome to the snark-fueled, historically grounded meltdown that is modern open source governance. Or, as we like to call it: Thursday.
📎 LINKS
Weblog - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
WordPress Drama Explained - https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/12/wordpress-vs-wp-engine-drama-explained/
Matt Makes Cancer Claim - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnI-QcVSwMU
Matt Mullenweg Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Mullenweg
WordPress Org Chart - https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/organization/
WordPress Book - https://wordpress.org/book/table-of-contents/
WordPress Foundation - https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/
Welcome to Tech News of the Week! Here's what caught our eye in the past seven days:
Scammers are out in full force this summer with hyper-detailed (but totally fake) DMV texts warning about traffic violations. Chris reads one of these gloriously absurd attempts to scare Pennsylvanians into paying fake fines. Spoiler: no, you're not going to lose your license on June 3rd. But you might lose your dignity if you fall for it. 🚨 Link: https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2024/PSA240412
OpenAI and the New York Times are still duking it out in court, and the judge just ordered OpenAI to keep a copy of all prompts and responses. Forever. This affects non-enterprise users, and yes, this includes your spicy GPT history. If you’ve been using AI to cheat on word games, you might want to consider switching to Claude. 🔍 Link: https://openai.com/index/response-to-nyt-data-demands/
Microsoft thinks you need convenience more than security, which is why apps can access your entire OneDrive if you click “yes” just once. Handy, right? Until ChatGPT or some shady lookalike app decides to rifle through your documents like a nosy raccoon. 🗂️ Link: https://www.techspot.com/news/108157-microsoft-file-picker-flaw-grants-full-onedrive-access.html
And speaking of old, guess who’s still rocking floppy disks and Windows 95? That’s right, the FAA. Because what better way to run national aviation infrastructure than with 30-year-old tech and hardware that needs 13 disks to install Windows. ✈️ Link: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/06/faa-to-retire-floppy-disks-and-windows-95-amid-air-traffic-control-overhaul/
Welcome back, fellow humans (and bots in disguise)! This week on Chaos Lever, Chris and Ned dive into the dusty archives and slap us with a two-by-four of cybersecurity déjà vu. We’re talking legendary hacks that should have taught us better—and yet, here we are. From Emacs-enabled espionage in 1986 to Equifax’s honor-system security policies, it's a masterclass in how not to protect your data.
🧠 Lessons? Sure. But mostly it's about how we never learn them. We dissect what really caused these breaches—not slick zero-days, but plain old negligence and a fondness for not patching things. Also featured: expired SSL certs, trust as a security model, and how managing your asset inventory is more crucial than ever.
💥 Oh, and Ned tried to do a handstand for a cloud video and bled. Not relevant to cybersecurity, but 100% relevant to the Chaos Lever experience. Stick around for reenactments, rants, and ruminations on how saying “I accept the risk” is not a security policy.
🔗 LINKS
Apache Struts bug: https://blog.talosintelligence.com/apache-0-day-exploited/
Nova episode about the 1986 hack: https://archive.org/details/The_KGB_The_Computer_and_Me_1990
Senate investigation into Equifax: https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/FINAL%20Equifax%20Report.pdf
CVE system creation by MITRE: https://www.cve.org/Resources/General/Towards-a-Common-Enumeration-of-Vulnerabilities.pdf
Chaos is inevitable—especially on Patch Tuesday. This week, Chris and I dive into four juicy stories that highlight just how strange, scary, and downright ridiculous the world of tech can be. Buckle up.
🪟 Microsoft is now rolling out a Windows Update framework for third-party apps. That’s right—your janky software updater might get replaced with a system that actually works… or works too well. Imagine every random app on your PC suddenly deciding it's update time. Will this be a blessing or just another reboot roulette? https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/introducing-a-unified-future-for-app-updates-on-windows/4416354
🧮 NIST and CISA want to make vulnerability scoring suck less. Enter LEV—Likely Exploited Vulnerabilities. It's a new system meant to bridge the gap between CVSS severity and the real-world exploitability of threats. Does it work? No clue yet. Is it better than sifting through 10,000 false alarms? Almost certainly. https://www.securityweek.com/vulnerability-exploitation-probability-metric-proposed-by-nist-cisa-researchers/
📡 ASUS routers have joined a new botnet called "AyySSHush" (seriously?). Hackers are hijacking popular ASUS models, disabling security features, and creating SSH backdoors that laugh in the face of firmware updates. Pro tip: factory reset your router, and maybe stop exposing your home network to the internet like it’s 1999. https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/29/8000_asus_routers_popped_in/
🛡️ Microsoft Defender got punked by a tool called DefendNot. It tricks Windows into thinking a different antivirus is running, which causes Defender to voluntarily shut itself down. Hilarious. Terrifying. Mostly hilarious. Defender can now detect it, but still—nice one, internet. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/new-defendnot-tool-tricks-windows-into-disabling-microsoft-defender/
What happens when a Google engineer thinks his chatbot has developed a soul? Three years ago, we covered the LaMDA saga, and now it's back—because someone forgot to turn off the AI. In this rebroadcast episode, Chris and Ned re-examine the wild story of Blake Lemoyne, who believed his creation had achieved sentience. It... uh, didn't.
🤖 The duo digs deep into what AI really is, why self-awareness isn't a prerequisite, and how anthropomorphizing code gets us into philosophical hot water. They also break down the Turing Test, IBM’s thoughts on AGI, and why AI in a self-driving car doesn’t need a conscience—it needs to not crash.
🧠 Come for the snark, stay for the thought-provoking discussion about consciousness, ethics, and the real role of AI in society. Also, IKEA lamps. And a chatbot that maybe just wanted to talk.
🔗 LINKS
- A Google engineer has been making some wild claims about a chat bot he was working on
- How easy it is to make people get emotional about inanimate objects such as an IKEA lamp
- Trying to find a way to describe AI that includes self-awareness
- The interview that Blake and co did with LaMDA
- There is a website called DALL-E mini
- In 2019 some researchers tried to get AI to invent a sport
Chris and Ned are joined this week by Colin Lacy, a senior software engineer at Cisco, recovering architect, and food photographer in a past life—yes, really. What starts as a detour into food photography quickly becomes a deep dive into everything wrong with technical interviews in tech today. From debugging Java on paper to AI in assessments, Colin doesn’t hold back.
🛠️ Colin unpacks his hiring experiences on both sides of the table, exposing the absurdity of algorithm-heavy interviews and advocating for real-world, job-relevant assessments. The gang questions the value of generic coding challenges and highlights how companies could better reflect day-to-day work in the interview process.
🤖 They also tackle the growing influence of AI tools in coding and why pretending they don’t exist in interviews is just plain dumb. Plus: Mount Fuji gets moved, debugging becomes a pencil sport, and someone finally says it—Java might be the actual problem.
LINKS:
🔗 Colin J Lacy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinjlacy/
🔗 Colin J Codes a Lot on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colinjcodesalot
Another week, more tech news chaos. This week:
🧠 Students are getting salty over professors using ChatGPT while banning it in their own assignments. One Northwestern University student even tried to get a refund over it. Nice try Margot. https://fortune.com/2025/05/15/chatgpt-openai-northeastern-college-student-tuition-fees-back-catching-professor/
💸 Microsoft posted a whopping $70.1B in revenue for Q3 and still decided to lay off 6,000 employees. Record profits and layoffs- because why not? https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/13/microsoft-is-cutting-3percent-of-workers-across-the-software-company.html
🦠 RVTools, the beloved free VMware infrastructure tool, got hit with Bumblebee malware. Yes, from the official site. No, you shouldn’t have trusted that download. https://zerodaylabs.net/rvtools-bumblebee-malware/
🔓 Intel just can't shake Specter. New vulnerabilities—Branch Privilege Injection and Training Solo—have popped up, reminding us that Intel CPUs are still as leaky as ever. https://thehackernews.com/2025/05/researchers-expose-new-intel-cpu-flaws.html
🎙️ In this episode of Chaos Lever, Chris and Ned dive deep into the murky waters of IT Certifications. Are they still relevant? Are they just money grabs? Or do they actually help you land that dream tech job? The snark is strong in this one as they discuss the good, the bad, and the brain dumps that come with navigating the world of certifications.
🧠 The conversation also veers into the history of certifications, from guilds and trades in the 1500s to the very first IT cert in 1978. Plus, there's plenty of shade thrown at Pearson Vue testing centers and the absurdity of partner status requirements. Spoiler: not everyone plays fair, and Ned may or may not confess to a few things.
🤔 But is it all just corporate gatekeeping dressed up as "skill validation"? The guys talk about the real value of certs, whether vendor-specific knowledge locks you into bad habits, and if your best path to a job might just be... social engineering? Pour a drink and get ready for a wild ride.
🔗 LINKS
🔗 The History of IT Certification | triOS College: https://wwwlive.trios.com/blog/the-history-of-it-certification/
🔗 A Brief History of Certification - TestOut Continuing Education: https://testoutce.com/blogs/it-insights-blog/160401479-a-brief-history-of-certification
🔗 History of IT Certification: https://jasoneckert.github.io/myblog/history-of-it-certification
🔗 History of Cybersecurity Certifications - Alpine Security: https://www.alpinesecurity.com/blog/history-of-cybersecurity-certifications/
🔗 The Evolution of DevOps Certifications: Trends and Predictions: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/evolution-devops-certifications-trends-predictions-msqoc
🔗 CompTIA - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompTIA
Welcome back to Tech News of the Week! Today, we're diving into some of the most interesting stories shaking up the tech world right now.
📰 Wikipedia vs. the UK Government: Wikipedia is going head-to-head with the British government over the newly passed Online Safety Bill. This massive 250-page legislation aims to increase online safety but at the cost of privacy and censorship. Wikipedia is pushing back, saying the requirements for volunteer editor verification will kill open contributions, especially in politically sensitive areas. Will this be the end of anonymous editing? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62j2gr8866o
⚠️ Broadcom Says Goodbye to Perpetual VMware Licenses: Broadcom has officially killed off perpetual licenses for VMware products like ESXI and vSphere, opting instead for subscription-based models. If you're still clinging to your old licenses, be prepared for some aggressive cease-and-desist letters—Broadcom's cracking down hard. Looks like Proxmox and Nutanix just got a big boost. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/05/broadcom-sends-cease-and-desist-letters-to-subscription-less-vmware-users/
👓 Apple Developing Custom Chips for Smart Glasses: Apple is reportedly pushing forward with its smart glasses project, building custom chips designed specifically for AR features and multiple cameras. Rumors are swirling that there will be both premium AR-capable glasses and a more affordable version that pairs with your iPhone. Ready for a new wave of wearable tech? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-08/apple-is-developing-specialized-chips-for-glasses-new-macs-and-ai-servers
📎 Clippy is Back! As an LLM, No Less: Developer Felix Riceberg has brought back Clippy in the most 2025 way possible—an Electron app running local LLM models. Now you can chat with Clippy powered by modern AI right on your desktop, complete with that iconic Windows '98 aesthetic. It's nostalgia and cutting-edge tech, all rolled into one. https://felixrieseberg.github.io/clippy/#window-about
In this episode, Ned and Chris dive headfirst into the chaotic world of technical interviews. From absurd coding tests to multi-hour marathons that seem more like hazing rituals, they break down just how broken the hiring process is in tech. Plus, you'll hear the incredible (and incredibly dystopian) story of Roy Lee, the college sophomore who turned cheating on interviews into a full-blown business. Yes, really.
Ned and Chris also swap war stories from their own adventures in the technical trenches—both as interviewers and interviewees. To the surprise of no one, none of it makes much sense. From over-the-top whiteboard challenges to the baffling art of "customer obsession," the duo peels back the layers of nonsense that have somehow become the norm. And if you’ve ever wondered why the horse names at the Kentucky Derby are so ridiculously serious, Chris has a plan that involves Sparkle's McTwinklefeet.
So grab your favorite caffeinated beverage (and maybe a nap), and get ready to laugh, cringe, and possibly reconsider your career choices. Because in the world of tech interviews, logic is optional, and absurdity is practically a requirement.
LINKS
🔗Columbia student starts cheating as a service: https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/21/columbia-student-suspended-over-interview-cheating-tool-raises-5-3m-to-cheat-on-everything/
🔗Tech interviews have always been broken: https://medium.com/@evnowandforever/f-you-i-quit-hiring-is-broken-bb8f3a48d324#.o0bqsq8a5
Another week, another tech reckoning! In this episode of Tech News of the Week, we dive into Microsoft's AI coding claims, password security doomscrolling courtesy of Hive Systems, Meta's courtroom drama, and Apple getting absolutely obliterated (again) in the Epic Games case. It's a smorgasbord of corporate shenanigans and judicial sass.
👨💻 Satya Nadella says up to 30% of Microsoft’s code is AI-generated—but how much of that is just glorified boilerplate? https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/30/microsoft_meta_autocoding/
🔐 Hive Systems’ 2025 Crackability Index is here to crush your password confidence. https://www.hivesystems.com/blog/are-your-passwords-in-the-green
📚 A judge grills Meta’s fair use defense like it’s last week’s tofu. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/judge-on-metas-ai-training-i-just-dont-understand-how-that-can-be-fair-use/
🍏 Apple’s greed gets them held in contempt, and we’re here for every delicious legal dunk. https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/01/read-the-juiciest-bits-from-the-apple-epic-court-ruling/
We wrap things up with a reminder that you should stop being greedy, be better about your passwords, and that nobody—NOBODY—should try to merge Excel, Word, and PowerPoint into a productivity chimera.
Welcome back, fellow alleged humans 👋 In this episode of Chaos Lever, we jump headfirst into the ad-tech cesspool to answer one burning question: how did we go from banner ads to full-blown surveillance capitalism? Spoiler: it involves Google being a monopoly (confirmed!) and Facebook being... Facebook. Yes, it’s as bad as you think.
This isn’t just a rant (though it’s a good one)—we walk through the history of online advertising, from the first innocent banner to the vast network of data-siphoning machinery that tracks your every click. Want to know how cookies, JavaScript, and ad exchanges work together to auction off your attention in microseconds? We’ve got you. Want to rage with us about how smart people built this nonsense instead of, say, curing anything? Also covered.
If you've ever wondered how ad blockers work, what a Facebook Pixel is, or why your pork loin is being monetized without your consent, this one’s for you. Come for the breezy kilt talk, stay for the existential dread.
LINKS
📌 The surprising truth about goldfish memory: https://discoverwildscience.com/the-surprising-truth-about-goldfish-memory-its-not-3-seconds-1-296741/
📌The 115 page decision in the Google case: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/US-v-Google-Ad-Tech-Opinion-4-17-25.pdf
📌A brief history on online advertising: https://www.peppercontent.io/blog/history-of-online-advertising/
📌Your user agent data: https://whatmyuseragent.com
The legendary Blue Meanie is back, and so are we! 🎙️ This week on Tech News of the Week, we dive into four wild stories that you need to hear about. First up, Chris rants (in the best way) about the new Slate electric truck — a throwback to the good old days where your car was a car, not a giant, glitchy computer on wheels. Manual windows? No speakers? Starting around $20K with tax credits? Sounds crazy enough to work. Find out if the Slate could be your future ride. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64564869/2027-slate-truck-revealed/
Next, Microsoft tries to fix a patch with a patch... and somehow makes it worse. 🛠️ Instead of solving a vulnerability properly, they decided to shove a folder named "inetpub" onto everybody’s system drive. Surprise! It doesn’t fix the issue and now Windows Update can break entirely. We break down the hilariously bad workaround and why Microsoft might want to actually fix Windows Update rather than apply yet another bandage. https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/24/microsoft_mystery_folder_fix/
Then, we tackle the privacy horror show brewing over at Perplexity.AI. 🕵️♂️ They’re launching a new browser called Comet and, shocker, the CEO basically admitted it’s built to harvest your data for hyper-personalized ads. If you thought Chrome was bad, get ready for round two. Plus, find out why Perplexity has their sights set on buying Chrome if Google is forced to break it up. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/24/perplexity-ceo-says-its-browser-will-track-everything-users-do-online-to-sell-hyper-personalized-ads
Finally, we revel in Comcast’s very public meltdown. 📉 During their Q1 earnings call, Comcast admitted they’re losing broadband customers left and right — and it’s definitely not because they’ve been awful for decades. Nope, it’s the customers’ fault for wanting reasonable prices and transparency. We stand in admiration at their "woe is us" attitude and explain why competition is finally sending Comcast packing. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/after-losing-customers-comcast-admits-prices-are-too-confusing-and-unpredictable/
If your Gmail inbox is older than your adult children and you're just now wondering if it's been reading your diary all along—congrats, this episode is for you! In part two of our “Living Life Without Being Poisoned by FAANG” series, we deep-dive into the world's most insidious search bar: Google. From ads masquerading as results to docs that double as AI training material, we unpack how the advertising company formerly known as a search engine became the shady overlord of your digital life.
We also take a good, long look at alternatives. Not just “use Bing” (come on now), but actual viable swaps like Kagi, StartPage, and DuckDuckGo. Need to break free from Gmail? Hello, Proton Mail. Curious about workspace alternatives that don’t hand your docs to Big Brother? Meet CryptPad. And for the content creators out there, we give the rundown on Nebula, PeerTube, and other non-Google places you can still host your rants and videos without being part of the algorithm’s human farm.
Then we shift gears to cloud services. We walk through smaller, boutique hosting options—from Linode to Fly.io to EU-based Scaleway—that won't charge you an arm and a leg. If you’ve ever wanted to ditch Big Tech but didn’t know where to start, grab your tinfoil hat (or at least a solar panel) and let’s talk freedom, baby.
👇 LINKS
Google reads all your stuff: https://policies.google.com/privacy/archive/20221215-20230701
Kagi is pretty great: https://www.theverge.com/web/631636/kagi-review-best-search-engine
Cryptpad looks like Office: https://cryptpad.org/
Photopea, like Zootopia: https://www.photopea.com
Hetzner auctions server costs: https://www.hetzner.com/sb/
Alexander Samsig did a breakdown of EU CSPs: https://asamsig.com/blog/picking-a-european-cloud-provider
Here's another Tech News of the Week for y'all! Stay tuned for our weekly full episode where we'll big talking about how you can ditch Google for something better (and no the irony of publishing this on YouTube is not lost on me 😅).
💣Microsoft drops a suspicious folder on your C drive and tells you not to touch it. Sounds totally normal and not ominous at all. Turns out, if you delete the new `C:\inetpub` folder, your April updates break. Microsoft says it's a security thing, not to worry about it, and please don’t mess with it even if IIS isn’t running. Honestly, it feels like a plot twist nobody asked for. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-windows-inetpub-folder-created-by-security-fix-dont-delete/
🟢 Google is officially a monopoly—again. A federal court ruled they violated antitrust laws in their ad exchange and publisher ad server businesses. The ruling doesn’t touch their ad network (for now), but the whole thing is a masterclass in how internet advertising works, and it’s kind of wild. There's potential for fines, restructuring, or even a breakup of Google. So, you know, big stuff. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/google-loses-ad-tech-monopoly-trial-faces-additional-breakups/
🤖 Cursor, an AI-powered coding assistant, accidentally gaslit its users with a hallucinating AI support agent named "Sam." Sam made up a fake policy, confidently delivered it to a paying customer, and got exposed when people dug into the nonexistent policy. Leadership at Cursor shrugged, slow-rolled a response, and didn't apologize. This is the AI future we were warned about. https://fortune.com/article/customer-support-ai-cursor-went-rogue/
🛡️ Chris Krebs (not Brian), formerly of CISA and SentinelOne, resigned to keep fighting a very political attack from the Trump administration. They're coming after him for basically doing his job and telling the truth about election security. Now his employer's being targeted too. Krebs stepped down to spare them the drama, and we salute the guy for standing firm. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/chris-krebs-who-debunked-2020-election-lies-vows-full-time-fight-against-trump/
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
In this week’s episode of *Tech News of the Week*, we’re talking about source control history, cyber cover-ups, licensing shenanigans, and encryption for the quantum future. It’s a spicy lineup, and we’re here for all of it.
🧑💻 Git just turned 20! That’s right, the tool most developers have a love-hate relationship with hit the big two-oh. Originally built by Linus Torvalds after he got fed up with BitKeeper, Git has completely transformed how software is developed. Linus wrote the first version in just 10 days—because of course he did. From obscure CLI commands to full-blown GitHub empires, it’s been a wild ride.
https://github.blog/open-source/git/git-turns-20-a-qa-with-linus-torvalds/
🕵️ Oracle got breached… allegedly. Then they claimed everything was fine. Then they kind of admitted something tiny might have happened. All while trying to erase history from the internet and quietly whispering confessions to their biggest clients. It’s shady. Real shady. Also, the vulnerability? In their own software, patched since 2021, but never applied. Neat.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/oracle-customers-confirm-data-stolen-in-alleged-cloud-breach-is-valid
💸 Microsoft is once again locking horns with the EU, this time over cloud licensing practices. Surprise! Azure gets the discount, and everyone else gets the bill. It’s all about that “hybrid benefit” Windows Server licensing scheme. And while Microsoft says they’ll fix it, deadlines are slipping and complaints are piling up. The EU is not amused.
https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/07/legal_clock_ticking_for_microsoft/
🔐 OpenSSH 10 is here with some serious post-quantum energy. This latest release brings in PQ algorithms to help us stay secure even when quantum computers start flexing. Plus, it drops legacy cryptographic support and plugs a few critical holes. It’s one of those unsexy but *massively* important upgrades.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/OpenSSH-10.0-Released
Thanks for listening! Now go away.
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
