Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Chaos Lever Podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Decks on Mars and Meta's AI Exploit | Tech News of the Week | 28 Sep 2026 | 00:23:36 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 09/28/2026. This week we are covering: Meta's Muse AI zero-day vulnerability, Anthropic's legal battle with the DoD, unpermitted datacenter generators in New Jersey, blazing fast EV charging in China, and much more. Facebook’s Muse AI Already Has Serious 0-Day Vulnerability Security researchers discovered an easy-to-exploit zero-day flaw in Meta's newly launched Muse AI assistant that allows attackers to hijack voice transcription and execute arbitrary commands. https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/09/muse-metas-extraordinarily-privileged-ai-assistant-has-a-serious-0-day A DC federal appeals court reversed a prior injunction and ruled against Anthropic, upholding the Department of Defense's ability to blacklist the company as a supply-chain risk after it placed restrictions on using Claude for surveillance and lethal autonomous weapons. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/court-rules-trump-can-blacklist-anthropic-for-refusing-to-enable-claude-features/ Vineland, New Jersey issued a $1.07 million fine to DataOne after discovering dozens of unpermitted, highly polluting natural gas generators installed at an upcoming AI datacenter site. https://whyy.org/articles/vineland-data-center-fined/ While China rolls out extreme fast-charging technology capable of boosting electric vehicles from 10% to 70% in under five minutes, trade restrictions and tariffs ensure American drivers remain reliant on standard, slower charging speeds. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/us-being-left-behind-in-ev-charging-speeds-as-china-goes-sub-5-min-to-70/ Airbus is utilizing Valve's commodity Steam Deck handheld gaming device to manually steer and test the Rosalind Franklin Mars rover prototype ahead of its scheduled 2030 autonomous mission. https://www.techspot.com/news/113932-airbus-using-steam-deck-drive-mars-rover-prototype.html Google-backed startup Fervo has begun delivering 33 megawatts of deep geothermal power in Utah to supply clean, around-the-clock electricity to Google's energy-hungry datacenters. https://www.theregister.com/systems/2026/09/25/google-backed-energy-outfit-brings-33-mw-of-4-gw-geothermal-potential-online-in-utah/5299243
Click here to watch a video of this episode. Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Meta’s Muse Takeover, Hallucinated Nukes, and Underwater Solar Panels | Tech News of the Week | 21 Sep 2026 | 00:22:32 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 09/21/2026. This week we are covering: Meta's new AI assistant Muse taking over social media handles and topping the App Store charts, TypeSafe AI launching its lightning-fast System 1 decision-making model Jev, Apple releasing OS 27 alongside Siri AI, and much more. Everybody Wants To Kick Mark Zuckerberg Meta launched its new personal AI assistant Muse, taking over social media handles formerly belonging to the rock band Muse and rocketing to the top of the App Store despite lingering privacy questions. 🔹 https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-muse-personal-ai-agent-top-app-store-charts-2026-9 Jev Doesn’t Want To Talk To You TypeSafe AI emerged from stealth to introduce Jev, a rapid System 1 decision-making model that foregoes a traditional chat interface to return lightning-fast, probability-based answers and classifications. 🔹 https://typesafe.ai/blog/introducing-system-one-models-and-jev Apple Releases OSX, iOS, and iPadOS 27 And Desperately Hopes Everyone Forgets that 26 Ever Happened Apple rolled out version 27 across its operating system lineups to fix the issues of version 26, bringing welcome stability alongside hardware-demanding Siri AI integration. 🔹 https://www.apple.com/os/ios/ Hallucinating AI Almost Destroys Humanity An intelligence report relying on an unverified chatbot hallucination falsely claimed banned nuclear arms were on a Chinese vessel, nearly provoking the US Navy to forcibly board the ship. 🔹https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/09/report-us-almost-boarded-chinese-ship-over-hallucinated-ai-arms-report/ Scientists Build Solar Panels That Can Work Underwater Researchers developed a specialized perovskite solar cell capable of resisting saltwater damage and absorbing dim underwater light to power submerged research equipment. Internet Explorer Will Finally Die in 2029- Sort Of Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer mode inside Microsoft Edge will remain supported until 2029, giving organizations a final runway to modernize legacy internal web applications. 🔹 https://windowsreport.com/microsoft-is-keeping-ie-mode-alive-inside-edge-until-at-least-2029/ Share and enjoy!
Click here to watch a video of this episode. Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Astra Arrives, Apple Stumbles, and VMware Caves | Tech News of the Week | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:19:03 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 09/14/2026. This week we are covering: OpenAI releases its new flagship model Astra, Apple introduces hardware alongside a new CEO, VMware brings back vSphere Standard, and much more. Open AI Releases Astra OpenAI has officially launched GPT-6 Astra, showcasing top benchmark results and fueling the ongoing debate over the path to AGI. 🔗 https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/ Apple Releases A Bunch Of Stuff, Including A New CEO. It Does Not Go Well Apple revealed its foldable iPhone Duo and watch updates under newly minted CEO John Ternus, drawing criticism over design compromises and always-listening Siri features. 🔗 https://www.wired.com/story/everything-apple-announced-september-2026/ VMware Backs Off VCF Forcing In response to pushback from small and midsize businesses, Broadcom-owned VMware is reviving the standalone vSphere Standard SKU to offer an alternative to its costly Cloud Foundation bundles. 🔗 https://4sysops.com/archives/vmware-revives-vsphere-standard-after-pushing-customers-toward-vcf/ Breaking News! From March Of This Year! Some Hard Drives Fail Faster Than Others A multi-year analysis of Backblaze drive reliability data highlights significant lifespan differences across drive manufacturers alongside a clear correlation between elevated operating temperatures and higher failure rates. 🔗 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11458693 Proxmox Offering Enterprise Grade Support Proxmox is expanding its enterprise presence by launching 24/7/365 live support through its North American operations to better attract organizations migrating away from VMware. Science Discovers New Sleep-Type Way To Help Your Brain Do Sleep Brain Things Better… With SCIENCE! Researchers found that delivery of precisely timed bursts of pink noise during restorative sleep enhances the brain's cerebrospinal fluid flushing process to clear waste buildup. 🔗 https://www.newscientist.com/article/2588451-bursts-of-pink-noise-during-sleep-seem-to-help-flush-waste-from-brain/ Share and enjoy!
Click here to watch a video of this episode. Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Rogue AI Agent Swarms & SpaceX Takes Over Cursor | Tech News of the Week | 31 Aug 2026 | 00:22:07 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/31/2026. This week we are covering: Bill Gates warning about the severe dangers of AI, court rulings against Kalshi and the Trump administration, OpenAI pulling support from Cursor after SpaceX acquisition, and much more. AI Is The Worst Thing Ever, Says Man Who Thought AI Was A Panacea 18 Months Ago 🔹 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/technology/bill-gates-ai-risks.html
Legal News That Brings Me Joy
OpenAI Tells Cursor That They’re Not Friends Anymore 🔹 https://openai.com/index/our-decision-on-cursor-following-its-acquisition-by-spacex/ Nvidia Embraces Hugging Face 🔹 https://thenewstack.io/nvidia-open-models-chips/ Interesting Malware Strategy Seen In The Wild From Relatively New Ransomware Gang 🔹 https://blog.talosintelligence.com/chaos-msarat-living-off-the-browser-to-build-covert-c2-channel/ Invasion of the Model Snatchers Click here to view the episode transcript.
Share and enjoy! https://chaoslever.com | |||
| Supermicro GPU Smuggling, Stripe Acquires OpenRouter, and Physics of Pasta | Tech News of the Week | 24 Aug 2026 | 00:18:32 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/24/2026. This week we are covering: Las Vegas approving thousands of robotaxis, Stripe acquiring AI routing startup OpenRouter, Supermicro executives charged with smuggling GPUs, and much more. 🔹 One More Reason to Avoid Las Vegas https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/20/tesla-uber-and-waymo-all-get-the-ok-to-operate-thousands-of-robotaxis-in-nevada/ 🔹 Stripe Buying AI Routing Company OpenRouter Because Reasons https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-16/stripe-nears-deal-to-buy-ai-firm-openrouter-for-over-7-billion 🔹 You Wouldn’t Steal a GPU https://www.theregister.com/legal/2026/08/21/supermicro-fired-staff-after-probe-into-25-billion-gpus-to-china-smuggling-operation/5290791 🔹 Legendary N64 Game GoldenEye 100% Decompiled After Five Years Of Effort https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/retro-gaming/goldeneye-007-for-n64-has-been-100-percent-decompiled-success-of-half-decade-project-opens-up-possibilities-for-complex-mods-and-ports 🔹 Taxation Is Theft https://techstrong.it/featured/federal-bill-would-tax-data-center-electricity-as-ai-power-demand-grows/ 🔹 Spaghetti Mystery That Vexed Richard Feynman Was Finally Solved By A Guy Called Norbert https://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-mathematicians-solve-age-old-spaghetti-mystery-0813 Click here to view the episode transcript.
Share and enjoy! https://chaoslever.com | |||
| Lost Archives, Risky BMCs, and Solar Quantum Leaps | Tech News of the Week | 17 Aug 2026 | 00:20:08 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/17/2026. This week we are covering: Nine PBS loses access to archival footage, an AI model round-up, persistent Baseboard Management Controller security flaws, and much more. St. Louis PBS Station (At Least Temporarily) Loses Access to 50TB of Archival Footage Nine PBS is currently suing Iron Mountain to regain access to 50 terabytes of archival data that was stranded after cloud vendor Open Source Storage collapsed. https://current.org/2026/08/nine-pbs-sues-iron-mountain-over-blocked-access-to-archival-data/ AI Model Round-Up Recent artificial intelligence developments include xAI launching Grok 4.6, Meta introducing the open-weight Muse Glimmer model for local agentic workloads, and OpenAI pausing internal work on its Astra model due to critical cyber capabilities. https://research.meta.ai/blog/introducing-muse-glimmer-open-agentic-model The Original Never-Updated Security Nightmare, On-Motherboard Components, Continue To Wreak Havoc New research presented at Black Hat reveals that baseboard management controllers across major vendors remain plagued by decade-old vulnerabilities and numerous internet-exposed deployments. https://www.runzero.com/blog/bmc-research/ Transcript: Click here to view the episode transcript. Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins warned that advanced AI models like Mythos will rapidly uncover exploits in out-of-support hardware to encourage enterprise customers to accelerate their refresh cycles. https://www.theregister.com/networks/2026/08/13/cisco-thinks-mythos-means-instant-death-for-unsupported-networking-kit/5287204 Researchers in Germany and Canada successfully demonstrated proof-of-principle quantum entanglement by focusing natural sunlight into optical fibers with a 94 percent state fidelity. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-harness-sunlight-for-quantum-entanglement/ NASA engineers installed the Big Bang software patch on Voyager 2 from over 13 billion miles away to optimize heat generation, conserve remaining electrical power, and keep the probe functional through its 50th anniversary. https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/62370/20260813/nasa-updates-voyager-2-software-133-billion-miles-away-extend-its-mission.htm | |||
| Chrome Eats Your Drive & GPT 5.6 Escapes | Tech News of the Week | 10 Aug 2026 | 00:20:24 | |
Welcome to Tech News of the Week for 08/10/2026. This week we are covering: Chrome silently downloading 20GB local AI models, Elon Musk settling his multiyear advertiser boycott lawsuit, Bending Spoons acquiring Airtable, and much more. --- Chrome Wants 20GB of Your Time --- Elon Musk is a Loser --- There Is No Air Table --- Chinese LLM Maker Moonshot AI Releases Kimi K3, A Super Powerful Model You Can Run At Home! … sort of --- GPT 5.6 Breaks Containment… Again --- 2,000 Year Old Carbonized Scroll From Herculaneum Has Been Transcribed --- Share and enjoy! | |||
| Chaos Lever After Dark — Season 2 Kickoff | 03 Aug 2026 | 00:13:29 | |
Welcome to the debut of Chaos Lever After Dark! Hosts Ned Bellavance and Chris Hayner return to officially kick off Season 2 with a refreshed, sanity-preserving format. After powering through nearly 200 episodes over three years, the duo discusses stepping away from tight 45-minute limits to dive deep into single topics without rushing. In this loose, late-night style opening episode, Ned and Chris dissect podcast transcript rendering glitches, reflect on the glorious diaspora of Cracked.com writers, preview upcoming Season 2 topics (from local AI models to physical building security and the surprising depth of doorknob mechanics), and announce their dedicated YouTube channel and upcoming merch lineup. | |||
| The End of Season One (Finally) | Chaos Lever | 26 Jun 2025 | 00:13:26 | |
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" 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
Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Spinning Rust [Still] Ain’t Dead Yet (Redux) | Chaos Lever | 19 Jun 2025 | 00:41:24 | |
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:
Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Can WordPress Be Saved from Its Creator? | Chaos Lever | 12 Jun 2025 | 00:39:41 | |
🔥 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
Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Microsoft’s OneDrive Fiasco and the FAA’s Retro Tech | Tech News of the Week | 10 Jun 2025 | 00:10:10 | |
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/
Click here to view the episode transcript. | |||
| Negligence as a Service | Chaos Lever | 05 Jun 2025 | 00:40:05 | |
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 | |||
| Your ASUS Router Is a Botnet Now | Tech News of the Week | 02 Jun 2025 | 00:09:01 | |
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/ | |||
| The Legacy of LaMDA | Chaos Lever | 29 May 2025 | 00:31:19 | |
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 | |||
| Your Interview Process is a Lie | Chaos Lever | 22 May 2025 | 00:36:29 | |
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: | |||
| Microsoft Layoffs Amid Record Profits- Wait, What? | Tech News of the Week | 19 May 2025 | 00:10:09 | |
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 | |||
| Brain Dumps, VARs, and Toiletfeet: The Certification Debate | Chaos Lever | 15 May 2025 | 00:41:14 | |
🎙️ 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 | |||
| Apple’s Smart Glasses Chips & Clippy's AI Comeback | Tech News of the Week | 12 May 2025 | 00:08:47 | |
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 | |||
| Sparkles McTwinklefeet and the Insanity of Job Interviews | Chaos Lever | 08 May 2025 | 00:40:51 | |
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 | |||
| AI Writes Code, Judges Write Burns | Tech News of the Week | 05 May 2025 | 00:11:07 | |
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/ 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. | |||
| How Google and Facebook Turned You Into a Product | Chaos Lever | 01 May 2025 | 00:37:45 | |
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 | |||
| Perplexity’s New Browser Wants All Your Data | Tech News of the Week | 29 Apr 2025 | 00:11:22 | |
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/ | |||
| Escaping Google's Grasp: Tools for the Privacy-Minded | Chaos Lever | 24 Apr 2025 | 00:39:59 | |
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 | |||
| Google on Trial, AI Support Fails, and Krebs Fights Back | Tech News of the Week | 21 Apr 2025 | 00:11:26 | |
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/ | |||
| Avoiding FAANG's Poison | Chaos Lever | 17 Apr 2025 | 00:42:46 | |
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 | |||
| Oracle Breach Cover-Up and Git Turns 20 | Tech News of the Week | 14 Apr 2025 | 00:11:05 | |
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. 🕵️ 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. Thanks for listening! Now go away. | |||
| Why Your AI Assistant Still Sucks (And How MCP Might Help) | Chaos Lever | 10 Apr 2025 | 00:35:54 | |
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 | |||
| Fast Flux DNS Threats, TikTok Faces EU Fury, NGINX Exposed | Tech News of the Week | 07 Apr 2025 | 00:09:41 | |
This week we talk lawsuits, leaks, and legacy code—all wrapped in Kubernetes vulnerabilities and good ol' DNS doom. It's everything you didn't know you needed to hear, and more. Let's dive in: 🧠 TikTok is getting slammed with a €500 million fine from the Irish Data Protection Commission for casually throwing GDPR into the sea. The Tok (yes, we're calling it that now) has been caught red-handed shuffling EU user data straight outta the continent. Meanwhile, April 5th was the US deadline for a sale-or-ban situation. You're in the future. You know what happened. We don’t. https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/tiktok-reportedly-faces-a-%25e2%2582%25ac500-million-fine-for-sending-private-user-data-to-china-162214079.html 🐙 NGINX Ingress controller vulnerability alert! Whizz disclosed a cluster of five issues that basically throw open the doors to your entire Kubernetes environment—if, and only if, the attacker is already inside. Still, maybe stop listening to this podcast and go patch your stuff. https://thehackernews.com/2025/03/critical-ingress-nginx-controller.html 💾 Bill Gates just released original Microsoft source code from 1975, and yeah, it’s both nostalgia bait and promo for his new autobiography. The code's printed. As a PDF. It's massive. And full of 1970s programming hacks that might hit a little too close to home for modern devs. https://www.gatesnotes.com/home/home-page-topic/reader/microsoft-original-source-code 🌐 DNS is always the problem. The latest? Fast Flux DNS attacks. CISA is waving red flags about a technique that helps malware stay stealthy by constantly changing IP addresses linked to C2 servers. It's a real “blink and you missed it” kind of threat. Patch your filters, folks. https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/03/cisa_and_annexable_allies_warn/ Don’t forget to patch your stuff and like, subscribe, or just go yell at a router. See you next week! | |||
| Women Who Built the Future (and Got None of the Credit) | Chaos Lever | 03 Apr 2025 | 00:27:35 | |
This week on Chaos Lever, we take a detour through a moldy book, moldy cheese, and somehow land at a celebration of women in tech history. Because that’s how this show works. We kick things off with a hot take on Who Moved My Cheese? and an uncomfortably enthusiastic ode to Gorgonzola, then accidentally spiral into a cinematic sadness spiral featuring Robin Williams. You’re welcome? From there, it’s a genuine salute to some lesser-known (but no less badass) women who shaped the technology landscape. We’re talking Bletchley Park, US Navy Code Girls, early human computers, and the pioneers who helped birth the GUI and the Internet as we know it. There are historical facts, dubious metaphors, and a surprise cameo by the first-generation Prius. I'd say blink and you'll miss it, but this is a Prius we're talking about. So if you’re into awkward transitions, wildly underrated tech heroes, and a sprinkle of righteous rage, then buddy, have we got the episode for you. 📎 LINKS | |||
| Microsoft Azure Is Retiring Your Admin Access | Tech News of the Week | 31 Mar 2025 | 00:11:43 | |
It's a wild week in tech and we're taking you on a ride through the most ridiculous and revealing stories from the digital frontier. Buckle up. 🎵 Remember Napster? Of course you do. It was the soundtrack to many of our teenage years, sneaking MP3s over college Ethernet networks and dodging Metallica-shaped lawsuits. Well, guess what? It's back... again. Sort of. Another Web3 company has paid *$207 million* for the name and logo of a brand that hasn’t made a dime since Bush was in office. We break down the hilariously tragic life and times of Napster and why, in 2025, someone still thinks it's worth salvaging. https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/27/napster_gets_new_owner/ ☁️ Microsoft Azure is quietly retiring legacy services, and one of them could break your whole environment. Classic Subscription Administrators are officially on the chopping block, and if you don’t migrate to RBAC by April 30, 2025, you’re out of luck—and out of your own account. Chris takes you through the Azure Service Retirement Workbook (yes, that’s a real thing) and how not to get nuked by an expired admin setting. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-workbook-service-retirement?tabs=impacted-services 🚀 Fermyon and Akamai just teamed up to drop *Wasm Functions*, a WebAssembly-based service with lightning-fast cold starts and a whole lot of polyglot potential. Think apps spinning up in half a millisecond, edge deployment, and basically a glimpse at the future of serverless. Ned explains why this might be WASM’s breakout moment—and why Azure should probably start taking notes. https://cloudnativenow.com/features/akamai-allies-with-fermyon-to-advance-wasm-adoption/ 📨 And finally, Troy Hunt—yes, *that* Troy Hunt from HaveIBeenPwned—got pwned himself. A very convincing phishing attack stole his Mailchimp credentials and leaked 16,000 email addresses. While the fallout isn’t catastrophic, it’s a humbling reminder that no one is immune. Chris breaks down what went wrong, what to do better, and throws a little shade in the name of cybersecurity hygiene. https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/security-expert-troy-hunt-lured-mailchimp-phish | |||
| OpenAI’s Freedom Salad and the Two-Page Apocalypse | Chaos Lever | 27 Mar 2025 | 00:33:25 | |
Biden’s executive order on AI safety was 111 pages of not-terrible ideas like protecting privacy and creating AI guidelines. Naturally, big tech was *not* a fan. Because when you ask Meta and Google to behave responsibly, they act like you just insulted their mom. Meanwhile in Europe: The EU held its AI Action Summit in Paris, making it clear they’re not messing around with AI governance. Public interest, worker protection, and global cooperation were on the table. Investors dangled €150B like a carrot—if only the EU would be a little less…protective of its citizens. 🙄 🧠 Then came Trump's executive order, aka the “let’s delete all the thoughtful stuff” memo. A whole two pages long, it replaced nuance with “make America #1 in AI because democracy and stuff.” Or, more accurately: “drill, baby, drill” but for GPUs. 📄 Enter OpenAI’s response to that call for action. On the surface, it’s just another document—but wow, the vibes are chaotic. There’s flag-waving, fear-mongering about China, and a healthy dose of “we want your data and your blessings.” Also, violently incoherent sentences that barely represent English. 📉 What *wasn’t* in OpenAI’s proposal? Anything about ethics, safety, upskilling displaced workers, or protecting vulnerable communities. But don’t worry—they did include buzzwords, bad logic, and more patriotic tech posturing than a Fourth of July parade. LINKS: | |||
| Facebook’s Legal Meltdown & Google’s $32B Power Move | Tech News of the Week | 24 Mar 2025 | 00:10:03 | |
This week we get into Facebook's ongoing saga of being the actual worst, a massive Google acquisition, some shady AI data scraping, and why the FCC is basically handing over rural America’s internet to the wolves. Buckle up. 📘 Facebook is Literally the Worst, Part One: Leadership Edition 💰 Google Buys Wiz for $32 Billion 🤖 Facebook is Literally the Worst, Part Two: AI Shenanigans 📞 Say Goodbye to Your Copper Lines | |||
| Thor, Thumb Drives, and Terrible Tech: Blackhat 2015 | Chaos Lever | 21 Mar 2025 | 00:41:14 | |
We’ve got bruised shins, sketchy USB drives, and a surprisingly judgmental cat—so you know it’s a classic Chaos Lever episode. This week, Chris walks us through the wonderfully terrible 2015 movie *Blackhat*, a film that tried really hard to be tech-savvy and instead gave us Thor doing cybercrimes. Ned’s never seen it, which is great, because now he gets to be appalled in real time. Join us as we unravel: There’s also a deep dive into why a nuclear plant *doesn’t* explode in 12 seconds (you're welcome), some shouty FBI negotiating, and one very suspicious biometric thumb drive. | |||
| Apple AI Fail, Quantum Hype & SUSE’s Bold Move | Tech News of the Week | 18 Mar 2025 | 00:09:35 | |
🚀 Welcome back to Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest, weirdest, and occasionally most questionable tech stories from the past week. 🧪 **D-Wave’s Dubious Quantum Supremacy Claim** 🐧 **SUSE Wants to Support Red Hat (Yes, Really)** 🚗 **Hacking Infotainment Systems: A New Cybersecurity Nightmare** 🍏 **Apple Delays AI-Powered Siri Updates—Blames Marketing** | |||
| Quantum Computing, Sandwiches, and Superconductors | Chaos Lever | 14 Mar 2025 | 00:40:05 | |
This week on Chaos Lever, we explore a heartwarming yet launch into an in-depth (and completely correct, don’t question us) discussion about quantum computing and the hardware solutions behind a qubit. 🧠⚛️ Google, IBM, Amazon, and even Microsoft have been making big moves in quantum tech, each promising advancements that may or may not totally destroy encryption as we know it. Superconducting qubits, quantum tunneling, and the mysterious Majorana zero modes—it’s all here, and it’s all *probably* real. Stick around for deep dives into how different qubit architectures compare, what quantum error correction means for scalability, and why tech companies are obsessed with giving their chips weird animal names. If you make it to the end, congratulations—you've earned yourself a snack from the fridge, preferably one that doesn’t require quantum coherence to stay intact. 🍕 --- 📌 **LINKS** 🌀 Thanks for listening! Follow Chaos Lever for more questionable but entertaining tech discussions. See you next week! 🚀 | |||
| VMware Under Attack Again—Three New Zero Days! | Tech News of the Week | 11 Mar 2025 | 00:09:40 | |
Welcome to another round of tech news! This week, we're diving into the resurrection of a once-popular social media site, the EU's big bet on RISC-V, fresh zero days for VMware, and Broadcom's bold money-making moves. 🎯 **Reddit's Co-Founder Wants to Fix Social Media... With More Social Media?** 💾 **The EU Goes All-In on RISC-V for Supercomputing** ⚠️ **Three New VMware Zero Days—Because One Isn't Enough!** 💰 **Broadcom's VMware Cash Grab is Working... For Now** That’s it for this week! Like, subscribe, and maybe, just maybe, we'll see you again next time. 🚀 | |||
| How the Internet Became a Glorious Mess | Chaos Lever | 06 Mar 2025 | 00:32:25 | |
The Internet: it was never supposed to work this well, and yet, here we are. This week, we’re diving into how we went from isolated, room-sized computers to a global, decentralized network that somehow (mostly) functions. We break down the early days of networking, when computers had to physically dial each other up, and how we eventually arrived at the distributed, self-healing, packet-switching magic that powers everything today. Along the way, we cover the different network models—centralized, decentralized, and fully distributed—and why only one of them could survive a nuclear attack (always an important design consideration). We also touch on ARPANET, the first real Internet, and how a bunch of researchers, military contractors, and a few weirdly named computers set the stage for what we have now. Spoiler: it involves a lot of improvised problem-solving and some very lonely PDP-10s. So if you’ve ever wondered how routing actually works, why the Internet doesn’t just collapse under its own weight, or what an “IMP” is, we’ve got you covered. Just don’t blame us if you leave this episode with a sudden urge to dig through RFCs. 🚀 LINKS | |||
| GPT-4.5 Drops & The Biggest Crypto Heist Ever | Tech News of the Week | 03 Mar 2025 | 00:09:37 | |
📢 Welcome to another episode of Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest stories in tech—sometimes with insight, sometimes with sarcasm, but always with desks. Maybe? This week, we're talking about IBM finally sealing the deal with HashiCorp, Microsoft's continued Notepad nonsense, OpenAI's latest attempt to justify its existence, and the biggest crypto heist of all time. Buckle up! 🟡 **HashiCorp Joins IBM** 🟡 **Microsoft Notepad Gets AI Because… Reasons?** 🟡 **GPT-4.5: Bigger, Better, and Full of Lies** 🟡 **Bybit Suffers the Largest Crypto Heist Ever** Now, go away. Bye. 🚀 | |||
| The Rise of NAT: A Necessary Evil in Networking | Chaos Lever | 27 Feb 2025 | 00:49:25 | |
Fifth-generation programming languages? Generations don’t even matter anymore. We’re basically at iPhone generation 16-and-a-half, and at some point, people are just making stuff up. Speaking of making things up, today’s episode of Chaos Lever is all about NAT (Network Address Translation), a necessary evil—or maybe just evil—that helped shape the internet as we know it. To break it all down, we’re joined by the legendary Ivan Pepelnjak, a CCIE Emeritus, BGP wizard, and all-around networking guru. He’s here to walk us through the chaotic history of NAT, why it happened, and why, despite all efforts, it’s never really going away. We dive into the days when IP was just one of many competing protocols, when grabbing an IP block was as easy as sending an email, and when the first NAT implementations were only meant to be a temporary fix. Spoiler alert: that temporary fix became the foundation of modern networking. Ivan shares his firsthand experience from decades in the field, discussing why IPv6 adoption has been slow, how carrier-grade NAT is making things even messier, and why the dream of a fully end-to-end connected internet never really stood a chance. Plus, we touch on some truly wild networking trivia—like how stock exchanges measure fiber cable lengths to the nanosecond. If you’ve ever wondered why your home Wi-Fi setup still relies on NAT, why cloud providers and ISPs are desperate to push IPv6, or what networking challenges we’ll still be complaining about in another 20 years, this episode is for you. Stick around for some networking history, a bit of good-natured industry snark, and of course, a little chaos. And if you make it all the way to the end? Congrats, you’ve earned the right to set up your own double-NAT configuration at home—for "fun". --- LINKS 🔗 Chaos Lever Website: https://chaoslever.com | |||
| ARM Making Chips for Meta – Big Industry Shift? | Tech News of the Week | 24 Feb 2025 | 00:08:44 | |
Welcome back to Tech News of the Week, where Chris and I break down the biggest and weirdest stories in tech. We're a week behind because Chris decided to lose power—how selfish! But we’re back, and we’ve got four spicy news stories to dive into. Let’s go! 🧠 **Meta Wants ARM-Made Chips** 📖 **Facebook’s AI Reads Minds (Kind Of)** 💰 **SolarWinds Goes Private for $4.4B** 🖥️ **AI is Just Fancy Copy-Paste, Confirms Study** | |||
| Why Sneakers (1992) is Still One of the Most Accurate Hacking Movies | Chaos Lever | 13 Feb 2025 | 00:44:39 | |
What happens when you mix cryptography, heists, social engineering, and a dash of early '90s tech paranoia? You get **Sneakers**—a movie that might be more relevant today than it was in 1992. In this episode, we break down the film’s tech, its realism (or lack thereof), and the undeniable truth that **people are always the weakest security link**. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about the tech—it’s about **People, Process, Technology**, in that order. Along the way, we take some delightful detours, including a discussion of **Tim Curry chewing scenery in *Legend***, whether a Braille Playboy was a real thing (spoiler: it was), and why the best security measures can be defeated with a birthday cake and some good old-fashioned social engineering. So, grab your popcorn and your best anagram-solving skills, and let’s dive into the world of Sneakers—a movie that understood the power of ones and zeros long before our social feeds did. Oh, and if you’re planning to crawl around in a drop ceiling like Robert Redford, please don’t. | |||
| AWS Spends $100B on AI While OpenAI Fumbles Security | Tech News of the Week | 10 Feb 2025 | 00:07:40 | |
Welcome back to another jam-packed episode of Tech News of the Week! Chris and I are diving into four big stories that caught our attention this week. From sketchy ISP routers to OpenAI’s latest security fail, let’s break it all down. 🔹 **Stop Using Your ISP Router—Seriously** 🔹 **AWS Goes on an AI Spending Spree** 🔹 **Phishing Tests Are Getting… Meaner?** 🔹 **OpenAI’s New Model Helps… Write Malware?** That’s it for this week! Drop a comment, let us know your thoughts, and we’ll catch you in the next one. 🚀 | |||
| DeepSeek vs. OpenAI: Is This Really a Sputnik Moment? | Chaos Lever | 06 Feb 2025 | 00:41:50 | |
Can you feel the enthusiasm radiating from this episode? No? Well, Chris is already singing *The Lion King*, so we’re off to a strong start. Today, we’re diving headfirst into the world of AI with DeepSeek, the latest generative AI model out of China that’s supposedly shaking up Silicon Valley. Is it really the *Sputnik moment* some are claiming, or is it just another overhyped step forward? Spoiler: It’s not Sputnik. We break down DeepSeek’s origins, its connection to a high-frequency trading hedge fund, and why its *free* and *open-source* nature might not be as open as it seems. Oh, and censorship—lots of censorship. But don’t worry, you can always trick it by asking questions in Pig Latin. Meanwhile, Chris did some highly scientific testing (read: he asked it a Bible question), and we debate whether reasoning transparency is a *game-changer* or just a fancy parlor trick. Is DeepSeek a technical marvel? Yeah, kinda. Is it revolutionary? Not really. Is it 96% cheaper than OpenAI’s API? Absolutely. And *that* is what has Silicon Valley panicking. We also talk about the Wright brothers, the Cold War, and how local AI models might just burn a hole in your couch. Good times all around. --- 🔗 **LINKS** | |||
| Apple Silicon Security Flaws Exposed—Should We Be Worried? | Tech News of the Week | 03 Feb 2025 | 00:10:46 | |
Welcome back to another episode of *Tech News of the Week!* This week, we dive into some fascinating developments in quantum computing, corporate drama at Meta, a potential shake-up in the networking industry, and security vulnerabilities in Apple Silicon chips. Buckle up—it's going to be a wild ride. 🔬 **Photonics for Quantum Computing** 📢 **Zuckerberg Complains About Leaks… in a Leaked Meeting** 🛑 **DOJ Blocks HPE-Juniper Merger** 🔓 **Apple Silicon Chips Have Security Flaws** 📩 Got thoughts? Want to share expert insight? Hit us up at ChaosLever.com (but no collect calls, please). See you next time! 👋 | |||
| X.500: The Directory Service That Time Forgot | Chaos Lever | 30 Jan 2025 | 00:34:12 | |
Welcome to another episode of Chaos Lever, where we take a deep dive into the tech abyss and come out slightly more confused than when we started. This week, we're talking about the OG of directory services: X.500. Before Active Directory, before LDAP, there was this ambitious yet painfully cumbersome attempt to organize networked systems into a structured directory. Was it elegant? No. Was it practical? Also no. But did it lay the groundwork for everything we use today? Absolutely. Along the way, we uncover just how much of modern networking was cobbled together by people who were just making it up as they went. If you've ever wondered why directories matter, or you just enjoy hearing us ramble about obscure tech history, this episode is for you. And don’t worry—this is only part one. We still have Netscape, Microsoft, and a whole mess of bad decisions to cover. So buckle up, enjoy the ride, and remember: if you’re not questioning your life choices by the end of this episode, we haven’t done our job. --- 🔗 **LINKS** - https://www.identityfusion.com/blog/the-most-complete-history-of-directory-services-you-will-ever-find | |||
| Stargate Project’s $500B AI Dream & TikTok’s Creepy Accuracy | Tech News of the Week | 27 Jan 2025 | 00:11:06 | |
Welcome to this week’s **Tech News of the Week**! 📰 Chris and Ned dive into four fascinating stories from the tech world that made us scratch our heads, laugh, and maybe even fear the AI overlords just a little. Let's break it down: ✨ TikTok’s Secret Sauce ⚡ The Stargate Project: AI Meets Texas 🐑 Openvox: The Puppet Fork That Isn’t a Muppet 🖨️ Bamboo Labs: Locking It Down for Safety? Be sure to like, subscribe, and tell us what you think in the comments below! 👇 Don’t forget to hit that notification bell so you don’t miss next week’s episode of tech hilarity. See you next time! 🚀 | |||
| Disaster Recovery Fails: Lessons from the Trenches | Chaos Lever | 23 Jan 2025 | 00:40:13 | |
Welcome to the Chaos Lever podcast! In this episode, we're sharing some of our favorite (and most cringe-worthy) disaster recovery stories as Chris and I relive our days in the IT trenches. From accidentally shutting down a whole data center with the push of a button to a missing utility server derailing an entire cloud migration, we’ve seen it all. If you’ve ever wondered how NOT to handle DR or just need a good laugh, you’re in the right place. 😅⚡ We’ll talk about lessons learned the hard way—like why servers named "util01" are always critical, why you should *actually* test your DR plans, and why a bad backup can ruin your entire week. Whether you’re an IT pro looking for a relatable rant or someone curious about the chaos behind the scenes, you’ll enjoy this wild ride through tech disasters (and recoveries). 💾🔥 Thanks for hanging out with us and listening to our stories of near-catastrophes and occasional triumphs. If there’s a topic you want us to cover—or if you just want to share your own war stories—hit us up! You made it all the way to the end, so reward yourself with a seat on the couch and a nice, quiet pilot light DR plan. You’ve earned it. 🎙️🛋️ | |||
| Stack Overflow Declines: ChatGPT's Surprising Impact | Tech News of the Week | 20 Jan 2025 | 00:09:53 | |
🎈 Farewell to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, whose leadership made significant strides in broadband access, net neutrality, and cybersecurity initiatives. Her final acts defended free speech, but concerns loom with her likely successor. https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/read-jessica-rosenworcels-farewell-message 🤖 Microsoft is cramming AI into everything, but at a cost—literally. With Copilot features now included in subscriptions, expect prices to jump by 40%. Plus, they’re throwing in the Designer app for AI-powered image editing. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/01/16/copilot-is-now-included-in-microsoft-365-personal-and-family/ 🔒 The FTC is holding GoDaddy accountable for years of inadequate security measures. A new settlement requires them to implement real safeguards—but no fines yet. If you're a customer, it might be time to explore other options. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-takes-action-against-godaddy-alleged-lax-data-security-its-website-hosting-services 📉 Stack Overflow usage has plummeted 76% since ChatGPT entered the scene. With fewer quality contributions, the future of community-driven programming help is uncertain. Who will AI steal from next? https://devclass.com/2025/01/08/coding-help-on-stackoverflow-dives-as-ai-assistants-rise/ | |||
| Cracking the Code: The Enigma Story | Chaos Lever | 16 Jan 2025 | 00:35:48 | |
🌀 Hello, Alleged Humans! This week on Chaos Lever, we return to the fascinating world of cryptography, focusing on the Enigma Machine and its role in World War II. The Enigma Machine was an engineering marvel of its time, used by Germany to encode sensitive military communications. But even the most secure systems can have flaws, and Allied codebreakers—led by brilliant minds like Alan Turing—exploited those weaknesses to gain a decisive edge in the war. 🎙️ Did you know the Enigma started as a commercially available product? In this episode, we explore its ingenious design, from rotating rotors to complex wiring, and how it became the backbone of German military communication. We also break down how codebreaking innovations, like the Bombe machines, turned what seemed like an unbreakable code into an Allied advantage. It’s a story of brilliance, determination, and, yes, a fair bit of German overconfidence. 💡 We’re wrapping up our series on ciphers with this episode (Part 3!), paving the way for our next chapter: modern encryption and the digital age. Stick around to learn how the work of Bletchley Park laid the foundation for everything from online security to smartphone privacy. If you’re curious about the books we mention or want to try encoding messages yourself, check out the links below! --- **LINKS**
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