The Hacks

Chunga is in a pickle. He doesn't know how to begin an episode where the beginning is the end!

This episode of The Hacks, he and Tom are talking about exits.  The whole episode is about leaving things.  First, Chunga has announcement to make.  The time has come for him to make some life changes, but there's no need to worry!  The Hacks podcast is going to continue as it has for the past 5-years!  Be sure to listen every, single, Tuesday!

There's another exit on the agenda for this episode. It's not a big story yet, but it will be in the very near future. This exit already has a branded term associated with.  Have you heard of "cloud exit" yet?  If not, you will and very, very soon! Tom has been betting on, and warning people about cloud exit for along time now, primarily becuase he's been watching the trends, and the math for larger companies doesn't add up.  

Recent reporting shows that 42% of all US companies are now moving some or all of their IT workflow, and data storage out of the cloud and back to on prem. Industry experts are also saying this is just the beginning. Are the days numbered for the cloud as we have come to know it?  Listen NOW to find out!

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For some reason, across all industries, the term "right to repair" has become extremely controversial. The desire to take full control of your tech, car, home, and health is really causing a stir with with a huge cross section of society, including companies and the government!

Tom says he completely understands why, because its a complicated issue. Of course, if you buy something and pay taxes on it, it by all rights is yours! You should be allowed to fix it or modify it to your personal satisfaction, right?  Afterall, Chunga and Tom have both been doing that very thing to computers for decades. Unfortunately it's not always that simple. Businesses have designed their products to function a certain way, to accomplish specific outcomes that align with their individual brands.

Then, there's your own body. Thats a political and social "hot potato" Tom and Chunga are afraid to even mention. Should you be allowed to manufacture your own medicine? Its your body and your life afterall?  Tom has a lot to say on this topic, in this episode of The Hacks. Listen NOW!

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It's happened... The summer is officially over. It's time for all of us to buckle down and settle in to our normal, non-summer time routines. For some companies and organizations these routines can lead to complacency and laziness.  Which is exactly what the enemy is counting on!

As ridiculous as this sounds, there is a growing fear that rogue nations, specifically North Korea are targeting American, and European corporations by having government spies infiltrate organizations by--getting jobs!  Just applying for jobs and working like a normal employee. Turns out, they're virtually impossible to detect, let alone catch.

Tom says "It's comical how woefully unprepared we are to combat tactics of this nature". With that said, there are somethings that can be done to help a company determine if employees are legit!  What are they?  Listen NOW to find out!

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If we're to believe the press, things are looking really grimm in terms of global conflict. Over the past weekend, Chunga saw dozens of different media outlets all saying that we are closer to World War 3 than we have been since the 1960's.  Some are even saying it has already begun, we just don't know it yet.

This coverage has Chunga asking a couple of questions, the largest of which is regarding the global digital network and infrastructure. Tom says he right to be worried! If global conflict breaks out, it's going to be catastropic.  But, he says Chunga's worrying about the wrong things.  It's actually going to be much worse for everyone than he's thinking. The real impact on tech and global infrastructure is going to bring about a total catastorphe. Tom breaks it all down in this episode of The Hacks!

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Your Social Security Number... If you live in the United States, you've been told, taught and trained, since you were about 12-years old, to guard this numeric form of personal identification with your life!

Whelp, congratulations, you just failed. No really, it's true.  Your Social Security number is now out in the wild. Last week, a company called National Public Data announced that they had been hacked and every Social Security number, of every U.S. citizen had been stolen. So, what does this mean to all of us?  Is this something thats really bad, or is it not that big of a deal? Tom and Chunga think they have a pretty good read on the situation and have some advice for everyone, in this episode of The Hacks!  Listen NOW!

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After taking and extended summer holiday, Tom Hatch is back baby!

While he was away, Chunga came across and interesting article about "Singlularity". Do you know about the theory and concepts behind Singularity? If you're not familiar, Singularity is that singular moment in time when computers become self-aware, and merge their existence with humanity.

This article that Chunga found is from an American computer scientist and futureist named Ray Kurzweil. He claims that because of advancements in A.I., we will acheive Singlularity within the next 21 years. Chunga wants to know what Tom thinks about all of this, and if he agrees with Mr. Kurzweil.  So... Does he?  Listen NOW to find out!

Singularity within 21 years!

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In his other life, Chunga is a voice actor and is a member of several acting unions. Lately, that means he's always on strike for one reason or another.  Well, its happening again... This time, voice actors are striking against the video game industry!  At the center of this mess is A.I.--big shock. 

A.I. seems to be a near constant threat to performers in Hollywood, and now there's a growing chorus of video game fans that are pushing back against A.I. being used in video games. They're saying A.I. is ruining the quality of video games!  Chunga is curious and wants to know how dangerous is A.I. in video games, REALLY.  Tom says unlike previous claims in past union strikes, there is very legitimate danger!  He thinks this strike is most definately justified!  Why? Listen NOW to find out!!

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Over the weekend, Tom was one of the millions of people that were affected by the massive IT outage caused by CrowdStrike!  How about you? Were you affected the outage? Did you get stranded anywhere?

Chunga says, this is what happens when too many people rely on one singular thing. Tom "crushingly" agrees!  He refers to a problem of this type as a "Banana Problem"! In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga will define what the banana problem is, breakdown the the CrowdStrike disaster over the past weekend, and discuss how this unprecedented event may end up changing the future of tech!  Listen NOW!

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Tom has lost his wallet!  This has never happened before!  If you find it, will you please let him know?

Although his fresh back from his vacation, Tom is feeling anything but relaxed and recharged.  In truth, he feels like he came home to a huge dumpster fire. There's several reasons for this. Sure, the lost wallet is one of the big ones, but he's also came home to multiple different cyber-attacks, each of them much different from the other, but all of them potentially having an affect on him, Chunga, and on all of you!

The most recent of these attacks was the data breach at AT&T. That, coupled with several others, including the dark web release of 10 billion plain text passwords, has Tom feeling a little unsettled.  Chunga is surprised by this!  Afterall, now that multi-factor authentication is becoming more and more common, having your passwords out in the wild isn't the catastrophie that it wouldve been a few years ago, right?  Tom says, not so fast...  Why?  Listen now to find out!!

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Tom is taking a much needed break. Before he left on his extended holiday, he and Chunga had a chat about the decline of remote work in the tech space. This is one of those rare subjects of which Tom and Chunga passionately disagree. Recently, it has come to light that as many as 25% of tech companies have admitted to using a manditory "return to office" policy as a way of reducing staff, publicly avoiding the ugliness of announcing mass layoffs. 

Chunga is someone that has worked from his home office / studio for the majority of his professional life, he loves it!  Tom, on the other hand, not so much. With that said, he has some very strong opinions with regard companies and organizations that choose to use "return to work" as a method of staff reduction.  What does he have to say?  Listen NOW to find out!

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