And 2024, a Not-So-Wonderful Year
January 22, 2025
Every year has tech failures, some of them will join the zeitgeist as cultural phenomenons like Windows Vista, Windows Me, Apple’s Pippin game console, chatbots, etc. PC Mag runs down the flops in: “Yikes: Breaking Down the 10 Biggest Tech Fails of 2024.” The list starts with Intel’s horrible year with its booted CEO, poor chip performance. It follows up with the Salt Typhoon hack that proved (not that we didn’t already know it with TikTok) China is spying on every US citizen with a focus on bigwigs.
National Public Data lost 272 million social security numbers to a hacker. That was a great day in summer for hacker, but the summer travel season became a nightmare when a CrowdStrike faulty kernel update grounded over 2700 flights and practically locked down the US borders. Microsoft’s Recall, an AI search tool that took snapshots of user activity that could be recalled later was a concern. What if passwords and other sensitive information were recorded?
The fabulous Internet Archive was hacked and taken down by a bad actor to protest the Israel-Gaza conflict. It makes us worry about preserving Internet and other important media history. Rabbit and Humane released AI-powered hardware that was supposed to be a hands free way to use a digital assistant, but they failed. JuiceBox ended software support on its EV car chargers, while Scarlett Johansson’s voice was stolen by OpenAI for its Voice Mode feature. She sued.
The worst of the worst is this:
“Days after he announced plans to acquire Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk argued that the platform needed to be “politically neutral” in order for it to “deserve public trust.” This approach, he said, “effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally.” In March 2024, he also pledged to not donate to either US presidential candidate, but by July, he’d changed his tune dramatically, swapping neutrality for MAGA hats. “If we want to preserve freedom and a meritocracy in America, then Trump must win,” Musk tweeted in September. He seized the @America X handle to promote Trump, donated millions to his campaign, shared doctored and misleading clips of VP Kamala Harris, and is now working closely with the president-elect on an effort to cut government spending, which is most certainly a conflict of interest given his government contracts. Some have even suggested that he become Speaker of the House since you don’t have to be a member of Congress to hold that position. The shift sent many X users to alternatives like Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon in the days after the US election.”
Let’s assume NPR is on the money. Will the influence of the Leonardo da Vinci of modern times make everything better? Absolutely. I mean the last Space X rocket almost worked. No Tesla has exploded in my neighborhood this week. Perfect.
Whitney Grace, January 22, 2025
Why Ghost Jobs? Answer: Intelligence
January 21, 2025
Prepared by a still-alive dinobaby.
A couple of years ago, an intelware outfit’s US “president” contacted me. He was curious about the law enforcement and intelligence markets appetite for repackaged Maltego, some analytics, and an interface with some Palantir-type bells and whistles. I explained that I charged money to talk because as a former blue-chip consultant, billing is in my blood. I don’t have platelets. I have Shrinky-dink invoices. Add some work, and these Shrinky-dinks blow up to big juicy invoices. He disconnected.
A few weeks later, he sent me an email. He wanted to pick up our conversation because his calls to other people whom he thought knew something about selling software to the US government did not understand that his company emerged from a spy shop. I was familiar with the issues: Non-US company, ties to a high-power intelligence operation, an inability to explain whether the code was secure, and the charming attitude of many intelligence professionals who go from A to B without much thought about some social conventions.
The fellow wanted to know how one could obtain information about a competitor; specifically, what was the pricing spectrum. It is too bad the owner of the company dumped the start up and headed to the golf course. If that call came to me today, I would point him at this article: “1 in 5 Online Job Postings Are Either Fake or Never Filled, Study Finds.” Gizmodo has explained one reason why there are so many bogus jobs offering big bogus salaries and promising big bogus benefits.
The answer is obvious when viewed from my vantage point in rural Kentucky? The objective is to get a pile or résumés, filter through them looking for people who might have some experience (current or past) at a company of interest to the job advertiser. What? Isn’t that illegal? I don’t know, but the trick has been used for a long, long time. Headhunting is a tricky business, and it is easy for someone to post a job opening and gather information from individuals who want to earn money.
What’s the write up say?
The Wall Street Journal cites internal data from the hiring platform Greenhouse that shows one in five online job postings—or between 18% and 22% of jobs advertised—are either fake or never filled. That data was culled from Greenhouse’s proprietary information, which the company can access because it sells automated software that helps employers fill out job postings. The “ghost job” phenomenon has been growing for some time—much to the vexation of job-seekers.
Okay, snappy. Ghost jobs. But the number seems low to me.
The article fails to note the intelligence angle, however. It concludes:
The plague of such phantom positions has led some platforms to treat job postings in very much the same way that other online content gets treated: as either A) verified or B) potential misinformation. Both Greenhouse and LinkedIn now supply a job verification service, the Journal writes, which allows users to know whether a position is legit or not. “It’s kind of a horror show,” Jon Stross, Greenhouse’s president and co-founder, told the Journal. “The job market has become more soul-crushing than ever.”
I think a handful of observations may be warranted:
- Some how the education of a job seeker has ignored the importance of making sure that the résumé is sanitized so no information is provided to an unknown entity from whom there is likely to be zero response. Folks, this is data collection. Volume is good.
- Interviews are easier than ever. Fire up Zoom and hit the record button. The content of the interview can be reviewed and analyzed for tasty little info-nuggets.
- The process is cheap, easy, and safe. Getting some information can be quite tricky. Post an advertisement on a service and wait. Some podcasts brag about how many responses their help wanted ads generate in as little as a few hours. As I said, cheap, easy, and safe.
What can a person do to avoid this type of intelligence gathering activity? Sorry. I have some useful operational information, but those little platelet sized invoices are just so eager to escape this dinobaby’s body. What’s amazing is that this ploy is news just as it was to the intelware person who was struggling to figure out some basics about selling to the government. Recycling open source software and pretending that it was an “innovation” was more important than trying to hire a former US government procurement officer, based in the DC area with a minimum of 10 years in software procurement. We have a situation where professional intelligence officers, job seekers, and big time journalists have the same level of understanding about how to obtain high-value information quickly and easily. Amazing what a dinobaby knows, isn’t it?
Stephen E Arnold, January 21, 2025
Sonus, What Is That Painful Sound I Hear?
January 21, 2025
Sonos CEO Swap: Are Tech Products Only As Good As Their Apps?
Lawyers and accountants leading tech firms, please, take note: The apps customers use to manage your products actually matter. Engadget reports, “Sonos CEO Patrick Spence Falls on his Sword After Horrible App Launch.” Reporter Lawrence Bonk writes:
“Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is stepping down from the company after eight years on the job, according to reporting by Bloomberg. This follows last year’s disastrous app launch, in which a redesign was missing core features and was broken in nearly every major way. The company has tasked Tom Conrad to steer the ship as interim CEO. Conrad is a current member of the Sonos board, but was a co-founder of Pandora, VP at Snap and product chief at, wait for it, the short-lived video streaming platform Quibi. He also reportedly has a Sonos tattoo. The board has hired a firm to find a new long-term leader.”
Conrad told employees that “we” let people down with the terrible app. And no wonder. Bonk explains:
“The decision to swap leadership comes after months of turmoil at the company. It rolled out a mobile app back in May that was absolutely rife with bugs and missing key features like alarms and sleep timers. Some customers even complained that entire speaker systems would no longer work after updating to the new app. It was a whole thing.”
Indeed. And despite efforts to rekindle customer trust, the company is paying the price of its blunder. Its stock price has fallen about 13 percent, revenue tanked 16 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter, and it has laid off more than 100 workers since August. Chief Product Officer Patrick Spence is also leaving the firm. Will the CEO swap help Sonos recover? As he takes the helm, Conrad vows a return to basics. At the same time, he wants to expand Sonos’ products. Interesting combination. Meanwhile, the search continues for a more permanent replacement.
Cynthia Murrell, January 21, 2025
AWS and AI: Aw, Of Course
January 21, 2025
Mat Garman Interview Reveals AWS Perspective on AI
It should be no surprise that AWS is going all in on Artificial Intelligence. Will Amazon become an AI winner? Sure, if it keeps those managing the company’s third-party reseller program away from AWS. Nilay Patel, The Verge‘s Editor-in Chief, interviewed AWS head Matt Garmon. He explains “Why CEO Matt Garman Is Willing to Bet AWS on AI.” Patel writes:
“Matt has a really interesting perspective for that kind of conversation since he’s been at AWS for 20 years — he started at Amazon as an intern and was AWS’s original product manager. He’s now the third CEO in just five years, and I really wanted to understand his broad view of both AWS and where it sits inside an industry that he had a pivotal role in creating. … Matt’s perspective on AI as a technology and a business is refreshingly distinct from his peers, including those more incentivized to hype up the capabilities of AI models and chatbots. I really pushed Matt about Sam Altman’s claim that we’re close to AGI and on the precipice of machines that can do tasks any human could do. I also wanted to know when any of this is going to start returning — or even justifying — the tens of billions of dollars of investments going into it. His answers on both subjects were pretty candid, and it’s clear Matt and Amazon are far more focused on how AI technology turns into real products and services that customers want to use and less about what Matt calls ‘puffery in the press.'”
What a noble stance within a sea of AI hype. The interview touches on topics like AWS’ domination of streaming delivery, its partnerships with telco companies, and problems of scale as it continues to balloon. Garmon also compares the shift to AI to the shift from typewriters to computers. See the write-up for more of their conversation.
Cynthia Murrell, January 21, 2025
AI Doom: Really Smart Software Is Coming So Start Being Afraid, People
January 20, 2025
Prepared by a still-alive dinobaby.
The essay “Prophecies of the Flood” gathers several comments about software that thinks and decides without any humans fiddling around. The “flood” metaphor evokes the streams of money about which money people fantasize. The word “flood” evokes the Hebrew Biblical idea’s presentation of a divinely initiated cataclysm intended to cleanse the Earth of widespread wickedness. Plus, one cannot overlook the image of small towns in North Carolina inundated in mud and debris from a very bad storm.
When the AI flood strikes as a form of divine retribution, will the modern arc be filled with humans? Nope. The survivors will be those smart agents infused with even smarter software. Tough luck, humanoids. Thanks, OpenAI, I knew you could deliver art that is good enough.
To sum up: A flood is bad news, people.
The essay states:
the researchers and engineers inside AI labs appear genuinely convinced they’re witnessing the emergence of something unprecedented. Their certainty alone wouldn’t matter – except that increasingly public benchmarks and demonstrations are beginning to hint at why they might believe we’re approaching a fundamental shift in AI capabilities. The water, as it were, seems to be rising faster than expected.
The signs of darkness, according to the essay, include:
- Rising water in the generally predictable technology stream in the park populated with ducks
- Agents that “do” something for the human user or another smart software system. To humans with MBAs, art history degrees, and programming skills honed at a boot camp, the smart software is magical. Merlin wears a gray T shirt, sneakers, and faded denims
- Nifty art output in the form of images and — gasp! — videos.
The essay concludes:
The flood of intelligence that may be coming isn’t inherently good or bad – but how we prepare for it, how we adapt to it, and most importantly, how we choose to use it, will determine whether it becomes a force for progress or disruption. The time to start having these conversations isn’t after the water starts rising – it’s now.
Let’s assume that I buy this analysis and agree with the notion “prepare now.” How realistic is it that the United Nations, a couple of super powers, or a motivated individual can have an impact? Gentle reader, doom sells. Examples include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, The Shifts and Shocks: What We’ve Learned – and Have Still to Learn – from the Financial Crisis, and Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis – and Themselves, and others, many others.
Have these dissections of problems had a material effect on regulators, elected officials, or the people in the bank down the street from your residence? Answer: Nope.
Several observations:
- Technology doom works because innovations have positive and negative impacts. To make technology exciting, no one is exactly sure what the knock on effects will be. Therefore, doom is coming along with the good parts
- Taking a contrary point of view creates opportunities to engage with those who want to hear something different. Insecurity is a powerful sales tool.
- Sending messages about future impacts pulls clicks. Clicks are important.
Net net: The AI revolution is a trope. Never mind that after decades of researchers’ work, a revolution has arrived. Lionel Messi allegedly said, “It took me 17 years to become an overnight success.” (Mr. Messi is a highly regarded professional soccer player.)
Will the ill-defined technology kill humans? Answer: Who knows. Will humans using ill-defined technology like smart software kill humans? Answer: Absolutely. Can “anyone” or “anything” take an action to prevent AI technology from rippling through society. Answer: Nope.
Stephen E Arnold, January 20, 2025
National Security: A Last Minute Job?
January 20, 2025
On its way out the door, the Biden administration has enacted a prudent policy. Whether it will persist long under the new administration is anyone’s guess. The White House Briefing Room released a “Fact Sheet: Ensuring U.S. Security and Economic Strength in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” The rule provides six key mechanisms on the diffusion of U.S. Technology. The statement specifies:
“In the wrong hands, powerful AI systems have the potential to exacerbate significant national security risks, including by enabling the development of weapons of mass destruction, supporting powerful offensive cyber operations, and aiding human rights abuses, such as mass surveillance. Today, countries of concern actively employ AI – including U.S.-made AI – in this way, and seek to undermine U.S. AI leadership. To enhance U.S. national security and economic strength, it is essential that we do not offshore this critical technology and that the world’s AI runs on American rails. It is important to work with AI companies and foreign governments to put in place critical security and trust standards as they build out their AI ecosystems. To strengthen U.S. security and economic strength, the Biden-Harris Administration today is releasing an Interim Final Rule on Artificial Intelligence Diffusion. It streamlines licensing hurdles for both large and small chip orders, bolsters U.S. AI leadership, and provides clarity to allied and partner nations about how they can benefit from AI. It builds on previous chip controls by thwarting smuggling, closing other loopholes, and raising AI security standards.”
The six mechanisms specify 18 key allies to whom no restrictions apply and create a couple trusted statuses other entities can attain. They also support cooperation between governments on export controls, clean energy, and technology security. As for “countries of concern,” the rule seeks to ensure certain advanced technologies do not make it into their hands. See the briefing for more details.
The measures add to previous security provisions, including the October 2022 and October 2023 chip controls. We are assured they were informed by conversations with stakeholders, bipartisan members of Congress, industry representatives, and foreign allies over the previous 10 months. Sounds like it was a lot of work. Let us hope it does not soon become wasted effort.
Cynthia Murrell, January 20, 2025
Bossless: Managers of the Future Recognize They Cannot Fix Management or Themselves
January 17, 2025
A dinobaby-crafted post. I confess. I used smart software to create the heart wrenching scene of a farmer facing a tough 2025.
I have never heard of Robert Walters. Sure, I worked on projects in London for several years, but that outfit never hit my radar. Now it has, and I think its write up is quite interesting. “Conscious Unbossing – 52% of Gen-Z Professionals Don’t Want to Be Middle Managers” introduced me to a new bound phrase: Conscious unbossing. That is super and much more elegant than the coinage ensh*tification.
A conscious unbosser looks in the mirror and sees pain. He thinks, “I can’t make the decision to keep or fire Tameka. I can’t do the budget because I don’t have my MBA study group to help me. I can’t give that talk to the sales team because I have never sold a thing in my life. Thanks, MSFT Copilot. I figured out how to make you work again. Too bad about killing those scanners, right?
The write up reports:
Over half of Gen-Z professionals don’t want to take on a middle management role in their career.
Is there some analysis? Well, sort of. The Robert Walters outfit offers this:
The Robert Walters poll found that 72% of Gen-Z would actually opt for an individual route to advance their career – one which focuses on personal growth and skills accumulation over taking on a management role (28%). Lucy Bisset, Director of Robert Walters North comments: “Gen-Z are known for their entrepreneurial mindset – preferring to bring their ‘whole self’ to projects and spend time cultivating their own brand and approach, rather than spending time managing others. “However, this reluctance to take on middle management roles could spell trouble for employers later down the line.”
The entrepreneurial mindset and “whole self” desire are what the survey sample’s results suggest. The bigger issue, in my opinion, is, “What’s caused a big chunk of Gen-Z (whatever that is) to want to have a “brand” and avoid the responsibility of making decisions, dealing with consequences (good and bad) of those decisions, and working with people to build a process that outputs results?”
Robert Walters sidesteps this question. Let me take a whack at why the Gen-Z crowd (people who were 23 to 38 in 2019) are into what I call “soft” work and getting paid to have experiences work.
- This group grew up with awards for nothing. Run in a race, lose, and get a badge. Do this enough and the “losers” come to know that they are non-performers no matter what mommy, daddy, and the gym teacher told them.
- Gen-Z was a group who matured in a fantasy land with nifty computers, mobile phones, and social media. Certain life skills were not refined in the heat treating process of a competitive education.
- Affirmation and attention became more important as their social opportunities narrowed. The great tattooing craze grabbed hold of those in Gen-Z. When I see a 32 year old restaurant worker adorned with tattoos, I wonder, “What the heck was he/she/ze thinking? I know what I am thinking, “Insecurity. A desire to stand out. A permanent “also participated” badge which will look snappy when the tattooed person is 70 years old.
Net net: I think the data in the write up is suggestive. I have questions about the sample size, the method of selection, and the statistical approach taken to determine if a “result” is verifiable. One thing is certain. Outfits like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG will have to rework their standard slide decks for personnel planning and management techniques. However, I can overlook the sparse information in the write up and the shallow analysis. I love that “conscious unbossing” neologism. See, there is room for sociology and psychology majors in business. Not much. But some room.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2025
IBM Tells Google, Mine Is Bigger! But Can the Kookaburra Eat the Reptile Googzilla?
January 17, 2025
Prepared by a still-alive dinobaby.
The “who has the biggest nose” contest is in gear for 2025. I read “IBM Will Release the Largest Ever Quantum Computer in 2025.” Forget the Nvidia wizard’s pushing usable quantum computing into the far future. Forget the Intel Horse Features — sorry, horse collar — statements. Forget the challenge of making a programming language which makes it possible to create an application for a Oura smart ring. Bigger is where it is at in the quantum marketing world.
The write up reports with the repeatability of most research projects:
… The company’s largest quantum chip, called Condor, has 1121 qubits, though IBM’s Jay Gambetta says the average user of its quantum computing services only works with 100 qubits… The only way to get quantum advantage is to combine different components.” This is an issue of engineering as much as it is of quantum physics – as the number of qubits increases it becomes more practically difficult to fit all of them and the quantum computer’s input and output wires onto a single chip.
So what is IBM doing? Bolting stuff together, thank you very much.
But IBM is thinking beyond the Condor. The next innovation from IBM is Kookaburra. (This is a bird whose call is the sound of human laughter. I must come clean. When I read about this quantum achievement from IBM I did laugh. When I learned that chip’s name, I chuckled again. To be fair, I laughed more whenever I encountered the cognitive whiz kid Watson. But Kookaburra is hoot, especially for those who grew up in Australia or New Guinea.)
The write up says:
The task now is to increase that total number while making sure the qubits don’t make more errors than when the chips are kept separate.
Yep, bolting stuff together works great.
I am eagerly awaiting Google’s response because it perceives itself an quantumly supreme. I think when I laugh at the content marketing these big technology outfits output, I sound like a Kookaburra. (Did you know that a Kookaburra can weigh up to a half a pound plus they are carnivorous. This was an attribute when IBM was a much more significant player in the computer market. Kookaburras eat mice and snakes. Yeah, the Kookaburra.
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2025
Microsoft: Marketing and Semi Functional Technology Amuse Some People
January 17, 2025
Prepared by a still-alive dinobaby.
With support for Windows 10 ending, Microsoft is understandably eager for users to upgrade before then. Its latest nudge, however, may not have the desired effect. TechRadar reports, "Microsoft Embarrasses Itself with Windows 10 Pop-Up that Hogs the Desktop Urging an Upgrade to Windows 11—then Promptly Crashes." Oh dear. Writer Darren Allen elaborates:
"In a rather embarrassing turn of events for Microsoft, its latest bid to urge Windows 10 users to upgrade to Windows 11 has gone awry because the pop-up in question crashes. This is a full-screen pop-up, of which we’ve seen very similar (if not identical) variants before, which urges you to ‘Start planning for Windows 10 end of support’ ahead of the End of Life date for the OS which is October 2025. … The fresh wrinkle here, though, as Windows Latest reports, is that this pop-up is crashing for some Windows 10 users, as flagged up by a denizen of X (@ems_konto). So, what we have here is a message urging you to start planning what you’ll do when Windows 10 support runs out, telling you to prepare now, and that the Windows Backup app can help you transfer all your files to a new Windows 11 PC. And then the pop-up window immediately freezes, becomes unresponsive, and informs the user that ‘Reusable UX Interaction Manager is not working’ – whoops."
Not great for a company trying to usher users into the next iteration of its OS. Will users lose confidence and look elsewhere? A few Windows alternatives do exist, though none that are both cheap and easy to migrate to. Will more folks consider the adventure of using Linux? Perhaps a few will ditch the PC altogether for a Mac. We suspect most will just stick with the company they know, embarrassing glitches and all. Inertia, marketing, and good enough engineering are hallmarks of the company absolutely everyone eager to have a digital mom reminding them to do what is right and proper. Does mom follow the rules? Nah, my mother was a PTA cookie hustler. Who knows that one’s mom really did?
Stephen E Arnold, January 17, 2025
Amazon Embodies Modern Management: Efficient, Effective, Encouraging
January 16, 2025
A dinobaby-crafted post. I confess. I used smart software to create the heart wrenching scene of a farmer facing a tough 2025.
I don’t know if this write up is spot on, but I loved it. Navigate to “Amazon Worker – Struck and Shot in New Orleans Terror Attack – Initially Denied Time Off.” If the link is dead, complain to MSFT, please. (Perhaps the headline tells the tale?) The article pointed out:
Alexis Scott-Windham was celebrating the New Year with friends on Bourbon Street when a pickup truck mounted the sidewalk and rammed a crowd shortly after 3 am local time. She was treated in hospital after the back of her right foot was run over by the vehicle, and she was also shot in the foot. The bullet remains in her limb while doctors work out the best course of action to remove it while she recovers at home. The regional Times-Picayune newspaper interviewed Scott-Windham, who revealed she had been denied medical leave by the Amazon warehouse where she works for a medical checkup in two weeks’ time. The mother feared if she was absent from work for that appointment, she would lose her job.
Several observations are warranted:
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Struck means that the vehicle hit her. That would probably test the situational awareness of a Delta Force operator walking with pals to the Green Beans.
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Shot. Now when a person is shot, there is the wound itself. However, the shock and subsequent pain are to some annoying. I knew a person who flinched each time a sharp sound interrupted a conversation. That individual, who received a military award for bravery, told me, “Just a reflex.” Sure. Reflex. Hard wired decades after the incident in the Vietnam “conflict.”
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Fear of being fired for injuries incurred in a terrorist incident. That’s a nifty way to motivate employees to do their best and trust an organization.
Herewith, the dinobaby award for outstanding management goes to the real or virtual individual who informed the person injured in the terrorist attack the Outstanding Management insignia. Wear it proudly. When terminating people, the insignia is known to blink in Morse code, “Amazon is wonderful.”
Stephen E Arnold, January 16, 2025
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