Episodes

Welcome to this week’s Tech News of the Week! Join us as we break down the most fascinating and sometimes ridiculous tech stories making headlines. Let's dive in! 🎙️ 🚨 **Cyber Trust Mark Labels** Starting in 2025, new "Cyber Trust Mark" labels will appear on IoT devices, supposedly ensuring better security standards. But will this label actually mean anything, or is it just marketing fluff? Introduced by the FCC in 2023 and overseen by UL Solutions, this program outlines six key security capabi...

Welcome to our 2025 Predictions episode! This week, we dive into the future of tech with bold forecasts on RISC-V, AI advancements, cloud innovations, and the evolving landscape of tech giants. From potential Google breakups to OpenAI's sustainability challenges, we’re covering it all. And yes, things might get a bit chaotic—this *is* Chaos Lever, after all! 🌐💡 We’ll talk about why RISC-V could disrupt the chip market, whether Microsoft will finally adopt S3 API support, and why the future of W...

Welcome to another week of tech news! Let’s dive into the biggest stories making waves: 📢 OpenAI promised a data opt-out tool for creators all the way back in May 2024... and where is it? Nowhere to be found! Despite pledging to let creators keep their work out of AI training, no tool has emerged. Critics argue that opting out shouldn't even be the creator's job—data collection should require explicit consent upfront. And while the online ad industry says, "That would destroy us!" many are sayi...

🐶 Dogs don’t care about your sleep schedule, and apparently neither does AI, the metaverse, or the global cloud industry. Welcome to our annual Predictions Review Episode, where we celebrate how *mostly wrong* Ned was about everything (as usual) and how Chris continues to coast on vague predictions like an AI-enhanced Nostradamus. Here’s what we covered this week: 🎯 Reviewing bold predictions about cloud revenue, AI lawsuits, and the elusive metaverse 📈 Why CXL, PCIe 6, and RISC-V didn’t exactl...

This week on Tech News of the Week, Chris and I dive into four fascinating stories from the world of tech: from the limits of human brains to the rise of WebAssembly. Plus, we get philosophical about the ephemeral nature of the internet and marvel at the future of coding with AI. Don't forget to complete our listener survey at https://chaoslever.com/survey It takes just a few minutes, and your feedback helps us make this podcast even better—or at least gives us something to ignore with flair. ...

Get ready for an electrifying ride through the history and evolution of supercomputers! From the groundbreaking Cray-1 to today’s mind-blowing El Capitan, we cover it all—with tangents about Interstellar, floating-point math, and why your iPhone is basically a mini-supercomputer. Join Ned and Chris as they unleash chaos on computing history! 🤖💻✨ What’s Inside: 📚 Seymour Cray: The genius who made supercomputers... and left his own companies 🔥 From mega-flops to exa-flops: Explaining performance ...

Welcome to another episode of Tech News of the Week, where we break down the hottest stories in technology with a dose of snark and insight. This week, we’re diving into Google’s AI extravaganza, GM’s retreat from robo-taxis, quantum computing milestones, and Microsoft’s push for eco-friendly data centers. Grab your coffee and let’s get into it! Google’s AI Blitzkrieg 🚀 Google is doubling down on artificial intelligence, unveiling a slew of announcements including Gemini 2.0, a next-gen model w...

Welcome to another episode of Chaos Lever, where Ned and Chris explore the history, intrigue, and occasional absurdity of cryptography! 🤖🧠 This week, it’s Part Two of our deep dive into codes and ciphers, from ancient Rome’s Caesar cipher to Napoleon’s overly optimistic battlefield encryption. Discover how cryptography evolved to outwit spies, soldiers, and codebreakers, setting the stage for the digital cryptography we know today. Plus: existential robots, live skeeting, and crunchy peanut butt...

Welcome back to Chaos Lever, where we sift through the latest in tech news so you don’t have to. Please take our listener survey! https://chaoslever.com/survey This week’s episode covers everything from Meta's nuclear ambitions to Broadcom's sudden change of heart. Let’s break it down: --- 🧠 Meta Joins the Nuke AI Club Meta is doubling down on AI by exploring nuclear power to meet its growing data center demands. They’ve issued an RFP for 1-4 gigawatts of nuclear power, focusing on Small Modu...

Get ready for another delightful descent into tech chaos, historical intrigue, and the occasional bout of existential questioning! This week, we mark (almost) three years since we started this podcast, and Ned is still totally not a robot. We also take a fascinating trip through the history of cryptography, from ancient Egyptian secrets to Julius Caesar's favorite ciphers and the tragic tale of Mary, Queen of Scots. Along the way, there’s talk of quantum computers, beer kegs with secret compart...

The Not-So-Hostile Takeover of iMessage Technology Originally Published on 12/21/2023 The Dreaded Green Bubble It's the shake-up of the century, or at least… it's pretty big news. It seems that pretty soon, non-Apple devices will be able to support iMessage technology. So how is this even possible? In order to answer that question, Ned walks us through the history of text messaging technology, from SMS to BBM to MMS and beyond. If you've ever wondered if phone carriers have been ripping you off...

Welcome to another episode of Tech News of the Week where we dissect the latest tech news with equal parts wit and snark. This week’s topics are as juicy as ever, from the DOJ taking a swing at Google to Apple’s embarrassing security scramble. Dive in below for more details and links to the full stories! !!!Take the audience survey here!!! https://pod.chaoslever.com/survey/2024-listener-survey/ DOJ Calls for Google Breakup The Department of Justice is not mincing words about Google’s dominance...

Step into the Wild World of Telephones! 🛠️📞 In this episode of Chaos Lever, we’re dialing up a fascinating exploration of telephony with special guest Sarah Autumn! Sarah, a volunteer engineer at the Connections Museum in Seattle, takes us on a journey through the evolution of telephone systems, from the quirky mechanical marvels of the early 20th century to the legacy technology that still shapes our communication today. Spoiler: it’s as much magic as it is science. 📌 Highlights from this week...

From AI's stumbling progress to groundbreaking tools and cyber threats, here’s what you need to know for this week: All The Major AI Models Continue To Lose Money AND Stop Advancing: Is the golden age of AI innovation already behind us? Reports from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic suggest that we may have hit a plateau. With increasing costs and diminishing returns, the financial and technical outlook for large AI models is looking bleak. Can ChatGPT 5—or any model—break through the ceiling? Or a...

Ah, passwords—the not-so-secret keys to our digital world. In this episode, we dig into the fascinating (and flawed) history of passwords, from their Roman origins to their debut in 1960s computing, and the constant struggle between ease and security ever since. Why are we still relying on passwords that can be hacked in seconds? And what are the latest recommendations from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to make our digital identities safer? Join us as we cover: 🔒 Ho...

In this episode of Chaos Lever, we dig into the latest tech updates and industry moves, from Amazon's ambitious push to rival OpenAI to Qualcomm’s plans for ARM-powered Windows laptops. We’ll also explore MacOS’s tricky approach to app sandboxing and debate whether Notepad really needs AI. *Amazon to Invest in Anthropic AI to Compete with OpenAI—But There's a Catch* Amazon is making a big move into the AI arena by deepening its investment in Anthropic, aiming to challenge Microsoft-backed OpenA...

In today’s episode, we’re diving into one of IT’s murkiest topics: Attack Surface Management, or ASM. Can ASM be fun? Maybe. Is it critical for modern security? Absolutely. If you’ve ever wondered what ASM actually does, or why it’s more than just the latest buzzword, we’ve got answers (and helping handfuls of snark). We explore how ASM helps businesses stay on top of their digital perimeters—those tricky-to-manage spaces outside the traditional data center walls. From spotting exposed IPs and ...

In this week’s *Chaos Lever Tech News*, we’re diving into groundbreaking—and sometimes just plain weird—developments in the tech world. Gene Therapy + Data Storage: Remember the days of 3.5" floppy disks with 1.44MB capacity? Today’s microSDs blow that out of the water, but there’s a limit to how much data we can fit on silicon. Enter DNA as a storage medium, where a single gram theoretically holds 215,000TB. Scientists are inching closer with "epi-bits," though the read/write speeds are still....

Get ready for a *spooktacular* look at one of the least spooky (but incredibly powerful) tools ever made: Microsoft Excel. It's Excel’s 40th anniversary, so we're diving into its history, quirks, and how this humble spreadsheet app has managed to shape business, science, finance, and... espionage? Yes, you read that right. Excel may not sound thrilling, but trust us, it's one of the most impactful tech tools of the last 40 years. From financial firms to scientific research, sports leagues, and ...

This week, we dive into the Internet Archive's recovery after cyberattacks compromised user data and targeted public knowledge institutions. IBM faces a tough quarter, with mainframe sales lagging but Red Hat growth keeping optimism alive. Broadcom issues another critical patch for vCenter, addressing a persistent flaw that remains a major security concern. Plus, Bluesky secures $15M in funding, positioning itself as a safer alternative for those leaving Twitter. Links: - https://www.sfchronicl...

In this episode, we dive deep into the wild world of cyber insurance and the massive changes that have unfolded between 2020 and 2023. Remember when we said cyber risks would increase and insurance applications would get tougher? Well, they sure did! And that’s just the start. Join us as we break down how cyber insurance policies have evolved—from simple yes/no questions to intense multi-page interrogations. But wait, there’s more! Like the Joker sequel no one asked for, this episode takes an u...

This week, we're diving into the surprising moves by some tech giants in the world of nuclear energy! Amazon has invested in small modular reactors (SMRs) to help power their datacenters, joining the likes of Google and Microsoft in the nuclear energy race. SMRs promise safer, more scalable energy, but don’t expect to see these reactors online until the 2030s. Can nuclear energy meet the growing power needs of AI and cloud computing? Plus, we honor the legacy of BBS co-creator Ward Christense...

In this episode of Chaos Lever, we take a trip down memory lane to explore the history of blogging—starting with the humble beginnings of bulletin board systems (BBS) and online forums, and moving through the rise of blogs in the early 2000s. We’ll reminisce about Justin Hall’s early “personal homepage,” the birth of the term “weblog,” and how platforms like WordPress revolutionized online content creation. From the golden days of Tumblr to the shift towards social media giants like Twitter and...

🎙️ Tech News of the Week – October 2024 | Hard Drive Failures, Tesla's Robotaxi, and Wimbledon Goes Automated! Join hosts Ned and Chris in this week's Tech News of the Week podcast as they explore the latest developments in technology and innovation. In this episode, we cover: 🚨 Data Loss Crisis: Hard drives are failing faster than expected, with 20% of backups potentially lost forever. What does this mean for your data and the music industry? 🚗 Tesla's Robotaxi: Tesla's "We Robot" event revea...