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Explore every episode of the podcast Chaos Lever Podcast

Dive into the complete episode list for Chaos Lever Podcast. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.

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TitlePub. DateDuration
You Had Me At EHLO... with Dylan Beattie03 Oct 202400:46:05

Join Ned and Chris in this episode of Chaos Lever, where they explore the fascinating and sometimes bizarre history of email and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Special guest Dylan Beattie, software development consultant and creator of the Rockstar programming language, shares his insights on how email evolved from early telegraph systems to the global communication tool we rely on today.

**Key Topics Covered:**
- The origins of SMTP and email's predecessor, telegraph systems
- Why email became the default communication tool, despite its flaws
- The first spam email and its lasting legacy
- The quirks and limitations of SMTP, including its security flaws
- Modern efforts to secure email with protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

If you're a fan of tech history, email protocols, or just enjoy hearing about the wild west days of the internet, this episode is for you!

Tech News of the Week - 09/30/202401 Oct 202400:10:01

 In this episode, we discuss how Google is improving Android security with Rust, significantly reducing memory-related vulnerabilities and enhancing developer productivity. We also dive into NIST's latest revision of its Digital Identity Guidelines, a crucial standard for protecting digital identities. Next, we explore the ongoing feud between WP Engine and Matt Mullenweg, which is impacting WordPress users. Finally, we touch on the latest legal development where authors suing OpenAI are granted access to the company’s training data for inspection. 

Links:
 - Android Is Gathering Rust: https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/25/google_rust_safe_code_android/
 - NIST Releases Second Draft Revision 4 of Digital Identity Standard: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-63-4.2pd.pdf
 - WP Engine Spat with Matt Mullenweg Prat: https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/25/wordpress-org-bans-wp-engine-blocks-it-from-accessing-its-resources/
 - OpenAI’s Training Data To Be Made Available To Search By Authors Who Are Suing Them: https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/openai_training_data_author_copyright_case/ 

Talk QWERTY to Me: A Keyboard History Lesson 29 Aug 202400:35:56

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.

ReiserFS In Decline [CL74]19 Sep 202300:37:09
ReiserFS In Decline

Episode: 74 Published: 9/19/2023

ReiserFS filesystem is being deprecated in Linux ��� wait��� explain all of those words to me

Well, ok, it���s not deprecated yet. It���s been marked ���obsolete.��� And it���s the end of a crazy tale that is a lot about technology in the early phases of Linux becoming mainstream, and also a liiiiiiiittle bit about, well. Let���s just say that there was some ���unpleasantness��� surrounding the namesake of the filesystem that greatly contributed to its downfall. But we���ll get to that.

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Tech News of the Week for 9/14/2023 [MTG009]14 Sep 202300:10:00
Moar Tech Garbage

Episode: 009 Published: 9/14/2023

Tech News for the Week of 9/14/2023

Intro and outro music by Ned Bellavance copyright 2022

Opposite Day With Advertising Company Google [CL73]12 Sep 202300:29:38
Opposite Day With Advertising Company Google

Episode: 73 Published: 9/12/2023

Advertising Company Google Poops In Your Sandbox

It���s been a while since we really harped on the whole Advertising Company Google thing, and that���s because we���ve been busy watching Elon absolutely destroy what little good was in Twitter to begin with, observing Microsoft stomp the yard of infosec rakes so hard Sideshow Bob would be impressed, and of course complaining about kids these days and their AI web3 NFT drones. Or something.

But believe it or not, Google is still a gigantic company worth $1.72T, and the vast majority of their revenue and most of their profit comes from selling ads. Hence the moniker Advertising Company Google. Now that���s exhausting to type and say every time, so I���m just going to shorten it to Google, with the understanding that advertising company is implied. Savvy? Excellent.

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Tech News of the Week for 9/7/2023 [MTG008]07 Sep 202300:13:58
Spinning Rust Ain't Dead Yet [CL72]05 Sep 202300:42:17
Spinning Rust Ain’t Dead Yet

Episode: 72 Published: 9/5/2023

The Spinning Disk Hard Drive Is Dead; Long Live The Spinning Disk Hard Drive

This month saw Samsung announcing some frankly absurd upcoming SSD products. Among them are a 256TB SSD and a PBSSD solution that encompasses, you guessed it, petabyte-sized SSD solutions. These are obviously future looking, and heavily based in the datacenter. Not addressed at the event is why a consumer would want or need that kind of storage, nor the fact that the market barely has any options for said consumers at 4TB, let alone larger. Still, in the enterprise this is big news, and announcements like it have lead companies such as Pure Storage to announce the effective end of HDDs, or, in parlance, spinning rust, as soon as 2028.

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Tech News of the Week for 8/31/2023 [MTG007]31 Aug 202300:10:36
Exploring VMware, err, Explore [CL71]29 Aug 202300:38:53
Exploring VMware, err, Explore

Episode: 71 Published: 8/29/2023

Is VMware Still Relevant in 2023?

Last week was VMware Explore 2023, formerly known as VMworld. The conference was renamed in 2022 for��� reasons? For those of a certain age, i.e. me, VMware was a pivotal (no pun intended) technology that transformed our use of compute, storage, and networking in the data center. We talked a bit about VMware the company when the Broadcom acquisition was announced, but I thought it would be interesting to revisit the company and pontificate on its future.

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Tech News of the Week for 8/24/2023 [MTG006]24 Aug 202300:16:08
Moar Tech Garbage

Episode: 006 Published: 8/24/2023

Tech News for the Week of 8/24/2023

Mister Ethan Banks, my cohost for Day Two Cloud joins us for a slightly modified Tech News of the Week.

Intro and outro music by Ned Bellavance copyright 2022

Software Licensing is BS...L [CL70]22 Aug 202300:35:27
Software Licensing is BS…L

Episode: 70 Published: 8/22/2023

HashiCorp Switches to BSL And I Hate Everyone and Everything

Well, maybe not everyone. This week we decided to do a little crossover episode with my other podcast Day Two Cloud. My cohost from the D2C pod, Ethan Banks, joins me and Chris to discuss the latest licensing changes over at HashiCorp.

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Tech News of the Week for 8/17/2023 [MTG005]17 Aug 202300:09:37
Tech News of the Week 08-27-2427 Aug 202400:08:10

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:

Soapbox Engineering? [CL69]15 Aug 202300:31:08
Soapbox Engineering?

Episode: 69 Published: 8/15/2023

Buzzword Bingo - Software Development Edition: Platform Engineering

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Tech News of the Week for 8/10/2023 [MTG004]10 Aug 202300:08:20
Honesty Is The Worst Policy [CL68]08 Aug 202300:32:20
Tech News of the Week for 8/3/2023 [MTG003]03 Aug 202300:12:42
Tech News of the Week for 7/20/2023 [MTG002]20 Jul 202300:09:35
Hyper Prologue Log [CL67]18 Jul 202300:30:39
Hyper Prologue Log

Episode: 67 Published: 7/18/2023

HyperLogLog - Just About The Greatest Name For An Algorithm That I Think Is Even Possible

Intro and outro music by James Bellavance copyright 2022

Moar Tech Garbage [MTG001]13 Jul 202300:09:08
Microaggressive Licensing [CL66]11 Jul 202300:44:22
Thirty-Six GigaToasters [65]04 Jul 202300:59:46
Just Disappointed [64]27 Jun 202300:43:40
Quantum Weirdness in Computing22 Aug 202400:31:26

The guys explore SMTP fixes, quantum mechanics, and how quantum computing might disrupt encryption, plus IBM’s free quantum resources.

Bits, Quits, and Quantum Fits: The Mysteries of SMTP and Superposition

Ned and Chris dive back into the nightmare disaster hellscape that is SMTP and explore the band-aid solutions of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Then, they take on quantum mechanics and computing. After all, who doesn’t love a good brain-melting challenge? The guys also explore the wild world of qubits, superposition, and the potential future where quantum computing could make encryption as we know it obsolete. Plus, Chris gives a shout-out to IBM’s free quantum computing resources—because who wouldn’t want to dabble in quantum for fun?

Links

Sometimes You���re The Problem [63]20 Jun 202300:42:01
Cher: The Cheez-It of Pop [62]13 Jun 202300:44:25
The Algorithm Made Me Do It [61]06 Jun 202300:51:20
Lying To Itself And Others [60]30 May 202300:43:26
New Ways To Do Things Wrong: RSA Conference 2023 [59]23 May 202300:43:08
Squiggly Red Lines: Adventures in WiFi 7 [58]16 May 202300:43:55
Moar AI Goshdarnit [57]09 May 202300:50:44
Regular Mario Can���t Jump: The State of IPv6 in 2023 [56]02 May 202300:56:17
Leo The Angry Penguin: A Malware Cautionary Tale [55]25 Apr 202300:49:22
An Oddly Shaped Cloud: Flexera State of the Cloud 2023 [54]18 Apr 202300:49:59
Tech News of the Week 08-20-2420 Aug 202400:09:43

This week on Tech News of The Week, Ned and Chris sit in the audience for Crowdstrike’s award acceptance speech, empathize with FAT32 as it packs on the pounds, take a front-row seat to the newest, largest data breach ever, and use quantum technology to tease ahead to this week’s episode of Chaos Lever.


Links:

Know Thyself Jellyfish: OWASP API Security Top 10 Countdown [53]11 Apr 202300:45:16
Electoral College of My Emotions: AI is a Stupid Parrot with a God Complex [52]04 Apr 202300:50:21
Anniversary Kitten BBQ: Biometrics for all the wrong reasons [51]28 Mar 202300:43:00
Soft Shell Nachos: Cybersecurity Starts in the Home [50]21 Mar 202300:53:23
Red-Teaming Barbados: Our National Cybersecurity Strategy [49]14 Mar 202300:49:11
The Bad Boy of Martha���s Vineyard: Addressing the Cloud Repatriation Fervor [48]07 Mar 202300:50:53
Mega Chad GPT: Taking Umbrage at Ubuntu Snap Strongarm [47]28 Feb 202300:48:20
Larry���s Fun Dip: Exploring SBOMs For Fun And Profit [46]21 Feb 202300:52:13
Gourmet Grey Goo [45]14 Feb 202300:47:20
The Hellscape Abides [44]07 Feb 202300:55:45
Bootstrappin' Boogie: Why Your Secure Boot Might Not Be So Secure15 Aug 202400:30:36

Ned and Chris explore a newly discovered flaw in UEFI Secure Boot that’s led to a critical OEM blunder that allows rootkit attacks, and the only fix is a potentially daunting firmware update.

Secure Boot’s Achilles’ Heel

Ned and Chris dive into a freshly uncovered flaw in the Secure Boot process of PCs using UEFI firmware. They trace the evolution of boot processes from ENIAC’s manual grind to today’s automated systems, highlighting the crucial role of cryptographic keys in blocking unauthorized code. Along the way, they expose a serious blunder where some OEMs carelessly included untrusted platform keys in their UEFI firmware, opening the door to rootkit attacks. The fix? A firmware update—if you’re brave enough to handle it.

Links

Shiska Bobby Tables [43]31 Jan 202300:54:29
A Young Warthog [42]24 Jan 202300:55:12
Behemicorny Dreaming [41]17 Jan 202300:50:19
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