The Hacks

We all know Tom Hatch is the guy who created Salt. Salt is arguably one of the most powerful automation & configuration management platforms ever created. However, most of us don't really understand what the philosophy behind the product was when it was created. 

In this episode of The Hacks, Chunga talks with Tom about the thought process and decisions that made Salt so powerful. They also talk about "the children of Salt"!  These are the programs that were created throughout the evolution of Tom's most successful creation. Listen now!

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In the last episode of The Hacks, Tom Hatch made a reference to a specific type of thought process. He was talking about 2D vs. 3D thinking.

Tom first heard about this in the film Star Trek 2 "The Wrath of Kahn". Ok, sure... It's easy to laugh at, but there's something legitimate and very serious that stuck with Tom. He says that our industry is filled to the brim with people who only choose to think in two dimensions; when they should be thinking in three! What does it mean to think in three dimensions? Are you a 2D or a 3D thinker? Listen now to find out!

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Recently, Tom Hatch was invited to the U.S. Army War College for a seminar focused on national security. While he was there, he attended a presentation from an author who was speaking about forming and asking better questions.

The core of this speech was centered around education and how modern society has been trained through standardized learning to solve problems a certain way. Because of this, people no longer have the ability to seek out robust and creative solutions to challenges. The byproduct of this way of thinking is bland and average solutions to oftentimes complex problems.

In other words, as an industry, we're too normal. Being normal creates weak and uninspired products.

In this episode, Tom talks with Chunga about how we can all overcome this standardized way of thinking, and solving problems. Listen now!

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Developers are under constant pressure. Pressure to innovate, pressure to maintain, pressure to create something bigger and better than their previous offering, and on top of that--pressure to do all of it faster.

Unfortunately, for many, that level of stress is simply unsustainable. Have you ever heard of John McAfee? At one point in his life, he was one of the world's most successful developers, until it all came crashing down. How can you avoid a crash of your own? Tom Hatch has some thoughts and ideas that may help ensure that you don't get crushed under your own stress. Listen NOW!

Did you know that every operating system is born from the chaos of open source software? 

Chunga and Tom had a completely different show planned for today until Chunga started complaining about his MacBook Pro. No, there's nothing wrong with it, he just doesn't like the way it "feels" when he uses it. Tom thinks Chunga's choice of words is interesting. He says feel actually means operating system!

Because of this, everything in this episode was changed to talk about how operating systems are built and why each one "feels" the way it does. Tom thinks that there are tons of professionals within the tech industry that don't have a clue when it comes to the decisions that create an operating system, do you?  Listen now to find out!

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A few days ago EA Games, one of the world's most successful video game companies was hacked by a group that stole the source code for a video game called FIFA 21. They also swiped the source code to a popular game engine called Frostbite. Currently, this group is trying to sell both on the black market.

Tom and Chunga are fascinated by this story for several reasons, the biggest being that these hackers are actually talking! Believe it or not, they even have an official "representative" that's talking to the press and telling everyone how they did it! The Hacks will discuss the specifics of this whacky caper and whether or not it's even worth trying to buy the source code back. (Spoiler: Chunga says if it were up to him, he wouldn't) Listen now!

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Building corporate open source muscle... What does that mean?

Every company carries a culture with it. In some cases, that culture is very long-term, which can make a change in direction--regardless of the reason--difficult. Sure, some companies can do it better than others. For example, there are many companies that have an open source offering as part of their business model. While they may have an open source platform, that doesn't mean they have open source muscle. In short, Tom says that just because you have open source, doesn't mean you use and build it effectively! 

In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga become your open source personal trainers and give you some ideas to build that muscle!

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This episode of The Hacks may go down as Chunga's all-time favorite! 

Have you heard the recent news story about a group of hackers that breached the infrastructure of a major casino? They were able to steal the personal information of many of the casino's top "whales" and high net worth individuals. Not only that, but they were also able to use the casino's infrastructure to gain access to many additional companies.

While this information alone is really scary, it's the way that they were able to breach the casino's data center that is truly terrifying. This group of cyber-criminals got in by hacking a thermometer in a casino aquarium! Is this the craziest hack Tom has ever seen? He says no, but it's certainly up there. 

Tom and Chunga discuss these crazy hacks and talk about what can be done (if anything) on a wholesale level to prevent these types of odd IOT intrusions. 

The Secret To Winning IT Security Roulette.

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It doesn't happen often, but occasionally, Tom and Chunga will talk about their personal lives on the show. Next week is a big week--Tom is getting married!

Even though he's completely preoccupied with last-minute wedding preparations, He's making to have some fun and talk about the evolution of DevOps! Remember when DevOps was the term that everyone loved to abuse? Well today, you don't hear it said much at all. Chunga thinks that needs to change! Even though DevOps as a philosophy has been around for over a decade, there a ton of people who are just starting to understand it. Tom on the other hand thinks the reason people don't use the term as much anymore is because DevOps has evolved.  What does he mean by that?  Listen now to find out!

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Have you heard about the professor from the University of Minnesota? Apparently, this guy thought it would be a good idea to submit code, with known security vulnerabilities, to the Linux Kernel in order to show how easy it is to get potentially malicious code through the Linux approval process.

It goes without saying that Linux is furious. Now, this professor may be in an awful lot of trouble, and the University of Minnesota is banned from submitting any further code.

These types of actions scare Tom Hatch to death. He has some strong opinions about all sides of this story, as well as other bad apples within open source communities throughout the tech space.