Tech News of the Week 09-10-2024

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Announcer: Welcome to Tech News of the Week with your host, the fleeting ambition of youth.

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Ned: Welcome to Tech News of the Week. This is our weekly Tech News podcast, where we get into four interesting articles that caught our attention in the past week. Chris, why don't you kick us off?

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Chris: Court case alert. At&t accuses Broadcom of doing all the things that Broadcom is doing.

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Ned: Hey, that's our thing.

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Chris: Wait a minute. Are you trying to say that AT&T is the hero of our time? Yeah, you're right. Let's not go crazy just yet. At least in this particular case, though, AT&T does seem to be the lesser of two evils. Broadcom, as everyone remembers, bought VMware for the express purpose of rent-seeking at, frankly, a master level. This included, among many other things, removing perpetual licenses. What they're also doing, according to this suit, is forcing companies like AT&T to buy subscriptions to get support for older perpetual licenses. Interesting, considering that AT&T claims this is in breach of the contract they signed. And holy shit, what a contract. In the suit, AT&T states that they are running something like 75,000 VMs across about 8,600 servers. Putting this into the official, unofficial, VMware licensing calculator caused it to start hyperventilating and making uncomfortable sounds. Suffice it to say, that's an expensive contract.

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Ned: Yeah.

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Chris: Basically, AT&T is saying that Broadcom is distorting them into buying the subscription-like license package that they don't want or need, or Broadcom simply will stop supporting AT&T's existing estate at all after September ninth. The heart of the suit is worth quoting in full, and thus I shall. Specifically, Broadcom is threatening to withhold essential support services for previously purchased VMware, perpetually licensed software, unless AT&T capitulates to Broadcom's demands that AT&T purchase hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bundled subscription software and services, which AT&T does not want. Now, I'm not a mind reader, but I feel like I just felt the breeze of thousands of listeners nodding their heads in what can only be described as a communal, sounds fucking familiar, manic fashion.

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Ned: Indeed. Whenever you hear the word capitulate in a sentence, it's not a good thing. Windows Arm is finally here? Microsoft has tried to make Windows on Arm happen a few times now, and each time it was stymied by a different issue.

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Chris: The original and- Nothing would run on it was the problem.

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Ned: The what? What?

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Chris: Nothing would run on it.

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Ned: That was the one. In fact, the original and core problem was that x86-based apps could not run on ARM processors without an emulation layer, and Windows RT, released in 2012, had no emulation layer and couldn't run X86 apps. It was swiftly canceled in 2015. Then in 2018, new laptops came out for Windows 10 on arm, and they did include an emulator, but the snap dragon processor at the time was not really powerful enough to run Windows 10, especially those emulated X86 apps. Since that time, both Qualcomm and Microsoft have worked to improve the speed of the chips, supported instruction sets, and emulator performance. With the release of the newest surface laptop with a Snapdragen X elite processor, Windows on arm has become a real, albeit expensive thing, with chips retailing in the $1,000 range. I happen to have the new surface laptop, and the battery life and performance are better so far than X86 processors. Now, Qualcomm has announced new Snapdragen processors called X plus that target the mid market with a low-end version to come soon. At this point, the software is good enough, and soon the price point will be there to match.

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Ned: Windows on arm has truly arrived, and Intel should be more than a little nervous if they weren't already.

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Chris: I mean, just imagine if Windows was built in such a fashion that cross-compiling was reasonable. I know. I've already said too much. Smb networking gear company, Zyexel, alerts the public about a lot of CVEs. Zyexel, a company that I thought only existed in the '90s for kids who couldn't afford US robotics modems, is having a rough time of it. This week, the manufacturer released notice that a wide array of their products are definitely vulnerable to a whole load of CVEs, ranging in severity from a piddly 4.9 to a terrifying 9.8. And covering basically every product they have, from APs to routers to fiber optic terminals to firewalls, you get the idea. This is That's, as you can imagine, very bad. Now, the vulnerabilities that they announced do range in severity and in potential exploitability. But the worst ones could allow, denial of service attacks and even, an unauthenticated attacker allowed to execute OS commands, unquote. A good portion of the attack vector seems to be based around the web interface, because of course it is. A web interface for a router, so friendly that even a script kiddy can use it. But a good number of them are not that simple.

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Chris: Now, this has been a problem for the company many times in the recent past, and there's yet another kicker. In certain cases, for certain gear, the patches do not even seem to be available unless you, privately contact the company's support team. And even then, the update path seems arduous. If you are a Zyxel customer, you know the drill. And by you know the drill, I mean, you remember doing something like this, Amir, let me check my notes. 14 months ago. Boy, oh, boy, the more I think about it, saving up that extra cash to afford the carrier modem seems like a better and better idea. Good work staying secure, 12-year-old me. Actually, if 12-year-old me is somehow listening, do us both a favor and buy some Bitcoin in a few years. I'll probably thank you for that, too, unless I get bored in my teens and forget where the wallet is, and then I'll regret that and dislike you. And why are we still talking? Go back to middle school.

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Ned: We know which one is most likely. Intel is not doing too hot. As I mentioned earlier, trust the process. For Philly sports fans, that's become almost a mantra. Sure, one of our teams might be shit now, but there's a plan. And a process, and you just have to have faith. Hell, sometimes that even works out. Hello, 2008 Philly's. See Chris, iSports.

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Chris: I guess, didn't have to look that up. I guess, 2016 wasn't a thing. Shut up.

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Ned: Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, has asked fans and supporters of the company to extend a similar amount of faith as he attempts to return Chipzilla to their former glory. But things aren't going great. When Pat assumed the mantle in 2021, he drew up a plan to split the company internally with a foundry division to make chips for Intel and others, and a design division to develop new versions of their chips. The foundry division, in particular, seems to be in deep do-do as they posted a $7 billion operating loss in 2023, and Broadcom has dropped them as a potential producer, citing manufacturing quality issues and production volume concerns. Intel stock has dipped 60% in the last year, and they are facing possible removal from the Dow Jones. The future isn't any rosier, with the foundry already $5.3 billion in the red for 2024, stock owners suing the company, and 15% of their workforce being laid off amid a massive reduction in CapEx spending. Gelsinger wants the Intel board to trust the process, but I suspect the board may have other ideas. Let's hope they don't pull an Andy Reid and fire Pat prematurely. More sports. Yay.

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Ned: Nothing?

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Chris: I'm proud of you. You're doing great.

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Ned: All right, that's it. We're done now. Go away. Bye.