Chaos Lever Podcast

 Remember the movie **Hackers** and its fictional supercomputer, The Gibson? While The Gibson might be fantasy, mainframes are still very much a reality in our modern computing world!

In this episode, we'll journey through some legendary Hollywood computers, like the WOPR from *War Games*, before zooming into the real-world star of the show: IBM's **z17** mainframe, powered by the *insanely powerful* Telum II chip. Yes, IBM is still cranking out new mainframes, and guess what? Banks, airlines, and more are still using them!

And did you know 2024 marks the **60th anniversary** of IBM's **System/360**? We’ll explore why this groundbreaking machine changed computing forever and how mainframes remain relevant today – from handling *huge* data loads to their legendary reliability and security.

🖥️ Why do mainframes still exist in a world full of cloud computing and Linux? 🤔 What makes these machines the go-to choice for big institutions like banks and airlines? We'll break it down for you and take a nostalgic stroll through computing history. 

Links: 
- **Magnetic Core Memory:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory 
- **System/360:** https://www.ibm.com/history/system-360 
- **Mainframes are relevant!** https://futurumgroup.com/insights/mainframe-trends-in-2024-navigating-innovation 
- **Telum II Chip:** https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/08/27/ibm-shows-off-next-gen-ai-acceleration-on-chip-dpu-for-big-iron 
- **What is a mainframe?** https://www.ibm.com/topics/mainframe 

 This week, the FTC confirmed what many suspected: social media giants like Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have been willfully collecting user data for profit, with minimal regard for privacy. Meanwhile, former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison proposed a controversial AI-driven surveillance system to monitor citizens and police, a plan that many find dystopian and absurd. In tech updates, Apple's new OS release, Sequoia, is causing issues by breaking key security tools, while Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, announced a full return-to-office mandate, sparking criticism over its potential to lower morale and productivity. 

Links:

• FTC Report Confirms Everything We All Already Knew
• Sometimes I Feel Like Larry Ellison Is Watching Me
• New Version of OSX Breaks Security Tools - Nobody’s Sure Why
• Amazon Goes Full 2019 With RTO Mandate
  
  

 In this episode, we explore the 1995 cult classic Hackers in honor of National Civic Hacking Day. Despite not being a movie podcast, the episode revisits the film’s depiction of hacker culture with fleeting nostalgia and an analysis of its technical inaccuracies. From Angelina Jolie’s memorable performance to the infamous “hacker war” scene, Chris helps us unpack the real-world feasibility of the movie’s hacks while highlighting the absurdity of Hollywood’s portrayal of cybersecurity. We also touch on the movie’s few accurate nods to real hacker tactics like social engineering and phone "phreaking" and explore how technology has evolved since the mid-90s, particularly with a prescient nod to the rise of RISC architecture.

LINKS:

National Civic Hacking Day is Actually … A Thing

Cyrix CPUs - Yes There Was Something That Wasn’t Just Intel or AMD

Kevin Mitnick Quotes

There Is No Real Thing As A Salami Slicing Scam

Most Commonly Used Passwords From 1997

Register for ONE CON here: https://ringcentr.al/4ec35qi 

In this episode, we discuss the European Court of Justice's decision forcing Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland, marking a major moment in corporate taxation within the EU. We also dive into Microsoft's breakthrough in quantum computing, as they announce the creation of 12 error-corrected qubits, a step forward in the notoriously difficult area of error resilience. Lastly, we explore OpenAI's "Strawberry" model, designed to improve reasoning in AI, and the latest drama involving OthersideAI's inflated claims about their new AI model, Reflection. 

Links: 

• The EU Takes A Big Bite Out Of Apple
• Quantum Update - Error Corrected Qubit Count Alert
• OpenAI Announces Strawberry Models
• AI Dudebro Lies About Model Capabilities, Gets Caught, Hilarity Ensues

In this episode, Ned and Chris examine classical computing fundamentals, breaking down complex topics like Turing machines, the von Neumann architecture, and the role of logic gates in computing. They explain how binary operations, logic gates, and transistors come together to form the foundation of modern computers. They also get into a discussion of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) vs. x86 architectures and the trade-offs between speed, efficiency, and complexity in modern processors.

Links:

xkcd Purity: https://xkcd.com/435/

Turing Machine: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-machine/ 

Von Neumann Architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture 

Half Adder: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/half-adder-in-digital-logic/ 

AT&T has filed a lawsuit against Broadcom, accusing the company of forcing it to purchase unwanted subscription software to maintain support for existing VMware licenses. Windows on ARM has arrived as a competitive platform, security vulnerabilities in Zyxel networking gear, and Intel's struggles to regain market dominance amid significant financial losses and operational challenges.

Links:

• Court Case: AT&T Accuses Broadcom of Doing All The Things That Broadcom is Doing
• Windows ARM Is Finally Here
• SMB Networking Gear Company Zyxel Alerts About a Lot of CVEs
• Intel Isn’t Doing Too Hot

 Football season is back, and with it comes a reminder of how the NFL has driven significant technological advancements in broadcasting. From the introduction of multi-camera setups and color TV in the 1950s to the creation of instant replay and the telestrator, the demand for better football viewing experiences has led to innovations that have reshaped how all forms of media are consumed. Modern technologies like RFID tracking and real-time 3D replays continue this trend, showcasing how football's influence extends far beyond the field and into the world of big data and cutting-edge broadcasting techniques.

Links: 

• NFL Throwback Highlights: The Greatest Game Ever Played
• What did ancient statues really look like in their time?
• The first game broadcast in color - UC vs UPenn, Franklin Field, Phila
• The First Instant Reply - Army-Navy game, 1963
• The Thin Yellow Line - Virtual First Down Markers 

 Microsoft will require all Azure customers to enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) starting in October 2024, aiming to enhance security by reducing the risk of account compromise by over 99%.

VMWare Explore 2024 was marked by dissatisfaction among attendees due to higher costs, a smaller expo, and lackluster swag, with many feeling alienated by Broadcom's management, despite some solid tech sessions.

The Windows Control Panel, initially set to be deprecated in favor of the Settings app, will remain available in the 2024H2 version of Windows 11, as Microsoft backtracked on its original plans.

A company called Plaud has introduced a wearable AI device called NotePin, which has been met with skepticism due to its limited usefulness and questionable design, despite being cheaper and more practical than similar failed devices.

Links:

- Microsoft Says MFA For Everyone
- VMWare Explore Was This Week: Exploring the End of VMWare, Apparently
- The Erstwhile Windows Control Panel Gets a Stay of Execution
- They’re Making Another Wearable AI Thingy Because They Just Can’t Stop Themselves

Ned and Chris cover quirky keyboard history, from missing keys and ThinkPad debacles to vintage typewriters and relic keys like Sys Rq and Scroll Lock.

Mo Keys Mo Problems

Ned and Chris explore the quirks of keyboards, starting with the irritation of missing home and end keys and the infamous ThinkPad function/control key switch. They journey back to typewriters of the late 1800s, like the Remington which gave us the QWERTY layout, and poke fun at old-school innovations like the shift key and tab key. The chat then shifts to terminal keyboards and early computers like the PDP-1, with its own peculiar keys. The guys also cover obsolete keys like Sys Rq, Pause/Break, Scroll Lock, and Num Lock, showing how they’ve become relics in today’s tech world.

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris cross their fingers that the latest version of Teams will actually work, “celebrate” the career (and retirement) of Azure Service Manager, sneak past the security flaws of Microsoft MacOS apps, and banter about the now-banned FTC non-compete ban. 

Links:

• Microsoft Releases New Version of Teams App That Might Actually Work
• After Almost A Decade Azure Service Manager Is Finally Being Retired
• Many Microsoft MacOS Applications Have Major Security Flaws That Won’t Be Fixed
• FTC’s NonCompete Ban is Banned