Technology Archives - EricSMueller.com

Will AI Take Our Jobs?

Probably not. At least not all at once.

It will absolutely change many jobs. Some jobs may disappear entirely. Others will be heavily augmented. But I suspect the real future will be messier and slower than either the evangelists or the doomers predict.

Disruptions Do Happen

Technological disruption is nothing new.

The light bulb turned the candle industry into a niche. Cars replaced horse-drawn transportation and wiped out entire supporting industries. “Video killed the radio star,” at least until MTV stopped playing music videos.

Technology changes markets. It changes labor. It changes how people organize society. AI is not unique in that regard.

What is unique is the speed of development and the amount of capital currently flowing into it.

The Projection Problem

Human beings are very good at taking present trends and projecting them indefinitely into the future.

When the stock market is booming, people assume it will continue forever. When housing prices rise, people pile in. People warning about bubbles are mocked right up until the correction happens.

The same thing happens with technology.

As of early 2026, NVIDIA became the highest valued company on the planet. History suggests that eventually growth plateaus, competitors emerge, margins compress, or the market adjusts expectations. That does not mean AI is fake. It means hype cycles are real.

AI itself is much older than most people realize. The field dates back to the 1950’s, and there have already been multiple “AI winters” where funding dried up after expectations outran practical results.

A few years ago, I assumed we would eventually hit the limits of current hardware and enter another AI winter. So far that prediction has not happened. Instead, capability keeps accelerating while companies continue releasing increasingly powerful models and tools.

But history also suggests exponential curves rarely continue forever.

What AI Is Actually Good At

Most of the public discussion around AI seems centered on programming. That’s not my world. I’m not a developer, and I have no desire to become one.

What interests me more are practical cognitive applications.

I use AI almost every day:

evaluating journal entries and spotting patterns in my own thinking
summarizing long-form content that may not justify reading the entire source
brainstorming and research
organizing information faster than I could manually

One of the most useful applications I’ve found at work is summarizing email chains.

Anyone who has worked in large organizations knows the pain of digging through endless headers, signature blocks, reply chains, and side conversations just to locate the one relevant sentence. AI is remarkably good at extracting the actual signal from the noise.

I can paste a chain into AI and have it summarize:

the discussion
the stakeholders involved
decisions required
unresolved issues
action items

It will even generate clean decision tables I can hand directly to leadership.

That is real value.

Fragmentation

At the same time, AI still feels strangely disconnected.

I have access to Microsoft Copilot, but I use Apple Calendar and do not use Outlook.com as my primary email service. I configured MCP integration between ChatGPT and Notion, but sometimes it works and sometimes it cannot see my information at all.

The technology is advancing rapidly, but the ecosystem still feels fragmented and incomplete.

What many people actually want is not just a chatbot. They want an integrated cognitive assistant that understands context across the systems they already use and can proactively anticipate needs.

We are not fully there yet.

What AI Still Cannot Do

As a Project Manager, I can already see areas where AI performs parts of my job faster than I can. Planning, summarization, documentation, and even aspects of risk analysis can often be automated or heavily accelerated.

But there are still critical parts of organizational life AI does not handle well.

Two of the biggest are:

cat herding
horse trading

Large organizations are not pure logic systems. They are human systems.

Projects succeed or fail based on personalities, incentives, politics, negotiation, trust, competing priorities, and institutional realities. Much of leadership is not about generating the optimal answer. It is about aligning human beings who want different things.

AI can assist with decision support. It can identify patterns and blind spots. But it has no agency and cannot be held accountable.

That distinction matters.

An AI can recommend a project plan. It cannot own the consequences if the plan fails.

A human still has to bear responsibility.

Jobs at Risk

Most jobs will probably be augmented before they are fully replaced.

If your work consists primarily of processing information according to repeatable patterns, your role is likely vulnerable to some level of automation. Some service industries and white-collar professions may experience major disruption:

travel agents
portions of law
accounting
consulting
financial planning
administrative HR functions

I have already seen prompts that can produce work products which would have previously required expensive consulting engagements.

That should concern people in those industries.

The trades, however, appear relatively safe for now. Mechanics, HVAC technicians, plumbers, electricians, builders, and similar roles operate in the physical world under constantly changing real-world conditions. Robotics may eventually change some of that, but physical labor remains far harder to automate than many knowledge workers realize.

Conclusion

The mistake many people make is assuming that because AI can simulate parts of intelligence, it can replace the entirety of human work.

But organizations are not held together by information processing alone. They are held together by trust, negotiation, responsibility, incentives, politics, and human relationships.

AI is already extremely useful. I use it constantly. It saves time, identifies patterns, summarizes information, and improves my ability to think through problems. In many areas, it will absolutely reduce the number of people required to perform certain kinds of work.

But there is a difference between generating outputs and carrying responsibility.

AI can recommend. It cannot own consequences.

That distinction may shape the next decade more than the technology itself.

The future is probably not full automation replacing humanity overnight. It is more likely a long period of uneven disruption where people who effectively collaborate with AI outperform those who ignore it, while institutions struggle to adapt to the economic and social consequences.

And if large portions of cognitive labor really do become heavily automated, society will eventually be forced to answer a deeper question:

What happens when human economic value is no longer tied as directly to human labor?

That may become the real debate behind AI.

Giving Linux Another Try

I’ve used Linux off and on since 1998 or 1999. I bought Red Hat off the shelf originally and installed it. At the time, my video card wasn’t supported, so I couldn’t get a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to work. I played with the command line for a while, then reinstalled Windows98.

A few years later, I bought SuSE off the shelf. I had enough old parts to build a separate computer, so I installed it on that box. I had a Windows computer and a Linux computer. I don’t remember doing anything extraordinary with it. I browsed with it occasionally.

I’ve tried a few other variants. When Debian released an .exe to install from Windows, I tried it in a Virtual Machine and wrote a blog post about the results. Ubuntu is one of many forks of Debian Linux.

But typically, I found Linux too limited for my use. I guess I’m spoiled by Windows and Mac applications, and if there is an alternative on Linux, it rarely measures up and is not interoperable with Windows and Mac users. Web applications have alleviated that to a point, but sometimes it’s better to just have an app that runs on your own device.

People on Linux forums are generally friendly and want to be helpful, but they are not helpful. Even today, visit a Linux forum and ask “Which version should I use?” You’re likely to get the response “Whatever works for you.” Now, I’m fairly technical and have some Linux experience, and that barely makes sense to me. Imagine some 70 year old Boomer who can barely turn the computer on and doesn’t understand the difference between the operating system and Microsoft Word. How helpful is that going to be? Most people do not want to spend weeks installing Linux distro after distro until they finally land on that magic one that “works for you”. I wish Linux people understood this.

You also hear things like “You should compile your own kernel!” Why would I want to do that? Why would anybody trying to leave Microsoft and Apple want to just jump into that end of the Linux pool? Once you get REALLY good at Linux, sure, compiling your own kernel might be fun, but for the casual user who just wants to use their computer, it’s not fun. It’s very complex, and you need a deep understanding of kernels to do it. I tried it once, and I was lost. I didn’t understand what most of the components were and eventually ran out of patience for Googling them and why I should include or exclude them. If you want to promote Linux adoption, stop telling n00bs they should look at compiling their own kernels.

You can occasionally find posts and videos that will tell you about various distros, but they’re generally of the variety “Here’s this one. You might like this feature. This other one has this other feature. You might like that too.” It’s like they’re trying to be TOO impartial.

You may hear testimonies like “I breathed life back into my old Dell laptop by installing Linux! It runs fast!” So you take an old laptop, install Linux, and cannot duplicate the experience at all. It may run slower than Windows, if it even runs.

I took a Raspberry Pi 3 a friend gave me a while back. I tried running Ubuntu on it, but it was too slow. Ubuntu requires 4GB of RAM, and the Pi 3 has 1 GB. The Pi 4 is out now with up to 8GB of RAM. I got the Pi 3 running with Raspberry Pi OS (formerly Raspian) so I can play with it.

I figure I’ll dig back into Linux and try to find a way to think about it in a way that makes sense to me. Some of it is probably the heuristic Linux is based around. Linux is an x86 port of the Unix operating system. Unix was developed “by programmers, for programmers”. It makes sense to programmers, but not so much for the rest of us. I am not a programmer. I’m technically capable of learning it, but my experience in a Java class for my Bachelor’s degree made me swear off programming. I know enough to work with programmers and to manage software projects, but I haven’t been interested in writing programs since that class.

I’m glad Linux handles hard drive partitioning now. I remember having to manually partition my hard drive before I could even THINK about installing Linux. And Linux required at least 2 partitions, sometimes more.

Gear I Find Useful In Middle Age

Unless traveling, I used to walk around only with what I can carry in my pockets. As I progress past my mid-40’s, I’ve started to add a few pieces of gear to help me carry around more useful items. It felt like I was carrying too much in my pockets and I didn’t want to give up anything.

Man Pack

The first item I added is a Man Pack. I bought my first Man Pack at a gun show in 2012. It was in January and was really cold, so I had a sweat shirt and a jacket on. Once I moved inside, I began to overheat and had to take the extra layers off. As I was with friends, I was on their schedule. I began looking for a bag to carry my jacket and sweatshirt in. I stumbled across the Man Pack table. The founder, Aaron Tweedie, manned it himself. He had the sample Man Pack rigged for concealed carry. It seemed cool and useful, so I bought it.

I didn’t use it heavily at the time. The next Man Pack I bought was the Classic 2.0 in 2018 or 19 when I finally got around to submitting my CCW application. The 2.0 and further all have a compartment for carry. I also bought the velcro holster with straps for extra magazines. I later bought the teardrop shaped on. This year, the Op Sac came up, so I upgraded to that one. I passed the other bags down to my children. My 16 year old uses his heavily.

I use my Man Pack, obviously, to carry. I also carry with me a flashlight, solar phone charger, extra cables, and my iPad.

Scott E Vest

Earlier this year, due to my pockets getting heavier and heavier, I added a Scott E Vest. The most useful part of this vest is the ability to clip my car keys into a pocket. One of my cars uses a key fob, but my truck is still key in ignition.

Since I was in the Navy, I’ve kept my keys clipped to my belt loop. All you have to do is stand Duty Fire Controlman and carry the magazine keys around on a signal flag clip to become hooked to this method. But my keys jingle as I walk. Some former Marines I work with have commented “We can always hear you Navy guys coming from your keys.”

The Scott E Vest also has an RFID pocket, and I started keeping my wallet in there so it is not in my back pocket all the time. It fits in the pocket, anyway, but is too big for the RFID bag. But my wallet blocks RFID anyway (Bull Captain). I’ve never had back problems from a thick wallet, but I’m getting to the age where I may have to start paying for it.

I also carry some extra cables and a spare mask in other pockets. I haven’t fully utilized the Scott E Vest yet. One pocket will hold my iPad, but I can’t sit very well with it in there, so it stays in the Man Pack.

The Scott E Vest also has two dedicated phone pockets, so if I have to run out during the day, I can carry both my personal and work phones in the vest pockets.

Ridge Wallet

My final new piece of gear hasn’t arrived yet. I recently ordered a Ridge Wallet. It should arrive sometime between today and Monday. I normally just buy a wallet that meets my needs and use it until it falls apart. The Bull Captain RFID wallet is my third in the last 20+ years. “Minimalism” never had meaning for me, but I also realized I don’t need all the stuff I carry. I rarely have cash; I went as electronic as possible more than 20 years ago when I got my first Visa check card.

It’s easier than trying to find an ATM that works (they all seem to be broken when I need cash). I only need to carry one actual credit card for things like doctors offices and pharmacy drive-thrus and some gas pumps. I use Apple Pay on my Watch for everything else.

I’m looking forward to the Ridge. It should fit easily into the RFID pocket in my Scott E Vest.

I’m also hoping Apple’s idea of adding driver’s licenses to Apple Wallet catches on. The last time I flew, I added my boarding passes there and it was a lot easier.

I’m caught in between my fear of the tyranny of an electronic economy, and my love for what it could be without tyranny.

I Have Found No Use For Home AIs

I ran out to Best Buy yesterday to buy a TV for my office (I’m not a knuckle-dragging primate and therefore do not have a “man cave”.) While I was there, I looked around. I wandered by the AI section and played around with them. I even tried to rationalize buying one. I gave myself permission to do it. And I couldn’t. I walked away, grabbed the 32″ Roku TV I came for, paid, and left.

There are numerous problems with these AIs. For one, the “wiretap” implication:

That isn’t too big a problem. All of our devices are wiretaps, so that isn’t my objection. None of the use cases appeal to me. I watched the Alexa video at the display, and almost dislocated my shoulder from the jerking off motion I wanted to make. There’s some idiot at the top of the stairs about to slide down the stairs onto some pillows and the child actors playing his children. He says “Alexa, play punk music!”

I don’t listen to punk. I can’t stand it. Never could. I also don’t trust Alexa to find songs for my musical tastes, and I use Amazon Music Unlimited.

Then some woman asks it to change the temperature. OK, somewhat useful.

Google Home won’t work with my smart thermostat. Alexa has a skill for it, but I can change it from my phone anyway.

Of course, Alexa is programmed to repeat SJW talking points. I have no use for SJW talking points. And of course, your flash news briefing only comes from left-wing “fake news”. You can’t program it for custom sources, like InfoWars.

Then of course, as a tech enthusiast, I don’t see the point to a fixed location. I carry a phone with me all the time. What if I’m driving home, and want to have Alexa add something to my shopping list? I have to wait until I get home. (I don’t think there’s an Alexa app for Android, and I don’t care enough to look it up.) I have Alexa on my Kindle Fire, and I never use it (Alexa, not the Fire.)

So, even though I gave myself all the leeway possible, I don’t see myself owning one of these wiretaps anytime soon.

I would totally buy this thing if it existed:

How In The Hell Is Sling TV “Al La Carte?”

With Scumcast now gone, I started looking at Sling TV for my wife. I was in the process of signing up for a 7 day trial, when I realized something.

This is in no way, shape, or form “al la carte.” In order to get my wife Food Network, I have to pay $20 a month for several ESPN, Disney (Yes, I know Disney owns ESPN), and Fake News Networks that I’ll never watch.

Forget it. This isn’t “al la carte.” This is the same bundling bullshit Scumcast does, but in a lower price range.

Sling, when I can get Food Network, Spike, and whatever channel airs “Air Crash Investigations” (because I can’t find new ones on YouTube anymore), I’ll sign up. I’m not paying you for the same networks I paid Scumcast for that I’ll never watch.

I signed out and closed the browser tab before I got to input my credit card. I’m not doing it.

New iPad Pro/iOS 11

The newest Apple announcement (I think it was last week) had some yawns and a few things to get excited about. Let’s talk about the 10.5″ iPad Pro. According to Mac Rumors:

I’ve seen the 12″ iPad Pro. It almost seems too big. Haven’t bothered checking out the 9.7″. I have an iPad Mini 3, which I don’t use all that much.

I’ve had the iPad 1,2,3 and the Mini 2 and 3. (The Mini 2 was from a failed mobility project at work. They deactivated the cell data and told me they didn’t want the tablet back).

The iPad has a buttload of promise, but one huge shortfall: it’s still a MOBILE operating system. That means you can only do one thing at a time. My personal “workflow” normally involves having a YouTube video playing in the background, or a podcast, while I’m going through email, reading RSS, or whatever else. You CANNOT do that on an iPad. OK, I have two Minis, so I guess I could play the YouTube video on one while I work on the other. Yeah.

Apple seriously needs to put some desktop features on the iPad, specifically the ability to open a YouTube video in Safari, then switch back to Apple Mail. Normally, when Apple goes through its annual update to iOS and MacOS, I see things like the following:

Update to iMessages!

Update to Photos!

14 freaking cameras that work as one!

Undecipherable update to Apple Music!

None of which excite me. I use an Android phone, so iMessages is useless to me, and I have yet to get excited about a new iPhone due to the above. Photos has some usefulness, but for my purposes, the built-in Windows photo viewer does what I need. And on my Mac, I just go through my pictures in Finder. Don’t care about cameras; ever since the iPhone 4 era, phone cameras have been at the resolution I need. And I don’t use Apple Music, which only works on Apple products. I’ve been using Amazon Prime Music lately (not the extra subscription service.)

According to Mac Rumors, iOS 11 does seem to have some interesting features, (at least on the iPad Pro):

Let’s see what Apple has to say.

Files – could be a game changer. Imagine that; actually being able to manipulate the file system on a tablet (you could do this on Windows tablets back in the 90’s… welcome to the future, Apple!)

The Dock – could be interesting. Is this only on the Pro, or will I also get this when I upgrade my Mini 3? (Yes, at the bottom of the page, both the Mini 2 and Mini 3 will get iOS 11. But will they get ALL THE FEATURES?)

Multitasking – if this is available on my Minis, that would be great. I could use them more.

Drag and Drop – again, you had this capability on Windows tablets back in the 90’s. You’re way late to the party, Apple!

Apple Pencil – will this work on the Mini?

Instant Markup – Adobe has had this on phones and tablets for years, but having it native would be useful.

Instant notes – again, had this in Evernote and OneNote. My cheap ass RCA Windows 10 tablet from Walmart came with this feature. But having it on the iPad means we’ll think Apple invented it!

Inline Drawing – looks pretty cool!

Scan and sign – part revolutionary, part late to the party. Evernote did this years ago. I had to scan my entire 110 page divorce agreement in 2015. I used Evernote for this. But to be able to sign… will anybody accept it? I tried to sign documents in Adobe with a stylus and had them rejected. I had to revert to 1848 technology (yes, the fax was invented THAT FREAKING LONG AGO) and “wet sign” and fax said documents, even though my signature looked exactly the same. I couldn’t tell the difference. How could they?

Quicktype Keyboard – interesting. I’ll have to play with it.

Augmented reality – just an API. Others have to develop apps for it. I had an AR app on the Nokia 920 I had in 2014. It was pretty cool. And Apple has had the ability for people to develop hardware that plugs into iOS devices since the iPad 2. I don’t know if anybody ever did.

That’s enough. I don’t get paid for this.

Chances are, I’ll get the public beta when it’s available. I’ll make some updates after I’ve gotten my hands on it. Now I need to look up MacOS 10.13. High Sierra. Although it’s been years since Apple introduced anything revolutionary into their MacOS.

Yawn. Another Android Phone

As much as I love technology, I’m kind of sick of hearing about dual cameras, retarded “virtual assistants”, and new messaging apps. I want something that changes the entire paradigm like the original iPhone did in 2007. Instead, the guy who created Android launched a new company to create the “Essential Phone“.

And it’s just another Android phone. With magnetic attachments. Mostly cameras, from what I can tell. Specs: the same. Instead of glass and plastic, it’s ceramic and titanium. And it costs as much as the high-end phones anyway. And I doubt it uses MST for payments, so no Samsung Pay, which has become essential to my operations.

WannaCry… Who Should Get The Blame?

I’ve heard Friday’s cyber attack called both “WannaCry” and “WannaCrypt”. I”ll stick with WannaCry for now.

As we know, on Friday, tens of thousands of users in about 150 countries were hit with a cyber attack that encrypted their hard drives and locked them out of their computers unless they pay $300 worth of BitCoin. After a few days, it goes up to $600 BitCoin. (I assume, for larger organizations, that’s $300 PER COMPUTER).

Obviously, governments and cybersecurity “experts” are telling those affected not to pay, and to trust those governments and experts.

My professional opinion? Pay the ransom, learn your lesson, and NEVER let it happen again. I guarantee you, $300 worth of BitCoin will be a LOT cheaper (assuming you take corrective measures) than bringing in experts to recover your systems, and of course the lost business and efficiency.

Biggest Factor

Pardon my French, but this attack was apparently VERY FUCKING EASY to prevent. The #1 factor involved was: outdated versions of Microsoft Windows, mostly Windows XP.

Background

Let’s review: Windows XP was released in 2001. I remember being very excited to get it. About that time, cybersecurity started becoming a big issue, and Microsoft had to devote a TON of resources into beefing up XP’s security rather than develop a new version of Windows. Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released in 2004. This incorporated a firewall and some new security features. Now, Microsoft was able to work on a new version of Windows, and shit out Windows Vista in 2006.

By most accounts, Vista was a flaming piece of crap. I liked it over XP, as it had some neat new productivity features, but it was a gigantic resource hog. It apparently needed 4 GB of RAM to run decently, at a time when most consumer computers came with 256-512MB. Also, Vista had some substantial changes to the system and security architecture that are still causing problems for those too stupid and cheap to upgrade from Windows XP.

The head dude in charge of Vista was fired or put aside, and Microsoft came out with Windows 7 in 2009. Windows 7 is what Vista SHOULD have been in the first place. It actually ran very well without needing a top end computer. Windows 8 followed around 2012, then Windows 10 in 2015.

I liked Windows 8, but I think I was the only person on Planet Earth who did. Most people couldn’t stand it. I’m smart enough to spend the 5 seconds I needed to on Google to figure out how to operate it, and I never had a problem. But Microsoft had to build back in the legacy features from Windows 7 because everybody else but me can’t handle change or 5 seconds on a search engine. (This includes Bill Gates, who allegedly came back to Microsoft part-time, was given a Windows 8 computer, and demanded to go back to Windows 7 because this software genius can’t handle a search engine either).

While all of these versions of Windows were going on, people got so dependent on XP that Microsoft was forced to keep supporting it. They originally intended to end support in 2008, but ended up extending a couple of times until 2013. Many companies had custom applications that were practically hard-coded to only work on XP. I knew a dentist who, in 2010, went to buy some new Windows 7 laptops. He tried to run his dental application, and it wouldn’t work. He called support, and sure enough, they didn’t support Windows 7.

I see a doctor who uses Windows Server 2003 for his application. Every freaking time I go in there, I bring this up. Sever 2k3, like XP, is long since out of support. I ask the doctor “Are you trying to get hacked? Are you trying to get my patient data, and that of all the rest of your patients, stolen?” He keeps telling me he’ll bring it up to the people who provide their IT services, but so far, nothing has happened.

I go to another doctor who does everything by paper. As much as the IT Professional in me cringes at the stacks and stacks of paper and records in his office, I realize there’s no F’ing way he’ll get hacked. Of course, an office fire, a break in, or a misplaced record will have the same effect, so you’re screwed either way. You might as well embrace IT and TAKE REASONABLE MEASURES, and yes expenses, to protect it.

Second Biggest Factor

When it comes to any type of security, your biggest threat comes from inside. It’s your users, your employees, even your family. And it’s not even because they want to be. They’re just people (or sheople) stumbling through life without paying much attention.

For a class I took last year, I had to take a cybersecurity simulation. The set up is, you’re running an IT organization for 4 quarters, and you have a budget. You can only spend so much each quarter to protect your network. You can spend it on appliances (firewall, IDS, IPS, etc.), user training, antivirus for computers, and so on. But it’s a limited budget. And I had to get at least a 95% before I could submit my certificate. I was at it for hours.

I remember one time in particular, several rounds in. I’d somewhat gotten a feel for what areas I had to cover with the limited budget. Like, you can’t just give 5 rounds of user training and forget to install a firewall. So I had two good quarters, and defeated all the cyber attacks. Then, at the end of the 3rd quarter, the simulation hit me with 3 social engineering attacks in a row. All were successful, and I had to play again. I finally got a 96% on one round, saved the certificate to pdf, and emailed it to my instructor. I was not going to try to top the score at that point.

A user can be totally subversive, or a double agent, spy, or whatever form of actively working against you. But you probably have far more to fear from casual carelessness or just not understanding security.

We’ve all had a casual friend with an email account that started throwing off spam. Suddenly you get poorly worded English from them telling you to click a link. I always catch them; most people don’t. I tell the person to change their password. They probably change it from password to password1, and keep sending off spam as soon as the spammer cracks the new password. I just mark them as spam, since I don’t normally correspond with those people by email. But most people get an email with something like “You have GOT to see this!” and they click the link, which brings malware onto your network. And if you’re still stupid enough to be running Windows XP, now you’re infected.

Or, consider this scenario, which I used to explain social engineering to my wife:

<phone rings> “Random hospital, Karen speaking.”

Social Engineer: “Hi, Karen, I’m looking for John Smith.”

Karen: “There’s nobody here by that name.”

Social Engineer: “I’m sorry about that. Must be a wrong number, but I talked to John Smith from Random Hospital. Maybe you can help me, Karen.”

Karen: “Sure, what can I do for you?”

(Most people want to be helpful.)

Social Engineer: “I’m working on a proposal to upgrade Random Hospital’s computers. I’m wondering if you can tell me what operating system you’re running. I want to give you better equipment if I can.”

Karen: “I don’t know much about computers.”

Social Engineer: “That’s OK, it’ll just take a second. I can walk you through it. I really appreciate your help, Karen. Click on Start…”

Social Engineer: “OK, so Random Hospital runs Windows XP, Internet Explorer 7, and McAfee. Thank you, Karen, I appreciate your help”.

Now, Social Engineer knows Random Hospital is stupid enough to be running an out of date, unsupported operating system with well-documented vulnerabilities. Dis gon be gud!

That’s all it takes. Or digging through a dumpster. Social engineers can get a TON of good information from all the crap users throw away.

And that’s just from an employee who was trying to be helpful, not subversive.

For the record, I don’t tell people shit over the phone. I don’t look up numbers or give names to them unless I know who they are. And it’s not that I don’t want to be helpful or friendly, but because I know how social engineering works. And I’m not going to be the idiot who compromises my organization.

I can do this all night, but I think you get my point. WannaCry could have all been prevented IF the affected organizations were running currently supported operating systems with recent patches and updates applied, which can help mitigate user carelessness.

There’s one final factor we need to look at:

The Deep State, Unaccountable Spying Agencies

Here in America, we have the National Spying Agency and Cocaine Importing Agency. From what I’ve read, the very exploit that caused all of this was built by one of them (I don’t remember which, and it probably doesn’t matter). The recent Vault 7 leaks included some malware developed by one of them and left on an insecure directory that was apparently easy to access from outside.

Heads should roll for this. Both agencies most likely need to be gutted, involving people being fired and/or prosecuted. Proper lines of control need to be drawn and enforced.

Conclusion

I saw some claim today that this is all Microsoft’s fault. They should have left Windows XP in support forever.

Right. Should your car manufacturer be forced to support whatever car you drive indefinitely? Sooner or later, things break down and you need to buy a new one. Even if we all agreed to just freeze technology where it’s at forever, to never again develop newer hardware or software, maintenance still needs to be done. As people develop new exploits, those have to be patched. Sooner or later, the best way to defend against those vulnerabilities is going to be radical changes to the architecture of the operating system and software that runs on it. So no, this is a bad idea. Plus, how are the tech companies supposed to make money if they can’t convince you that you HAVE to buy a new phone every year?

I got into IT because I’m excited by new technology, new features, and new capabilities. I’ve spent most of my career frustrated by the baby boomers and people afraid of change forcing us to keep doing things the old way. I’m convinced that email is pretty much obsolete, but the biggest tool I still use at work is Microsoft Outlook. And I finally got Office 2013 on my work computer. I’ve been running 16 at home since last year.

(I wish I could get into independent consulting, but I don’t appear to be entrepreneurial).

A lot of people in IT need to get out of it. Go find something else to do, and stop holding the rest of us back. Or actually, start learning about it so you can do it effectively. Read some books or magazines, or watch some YouTube videos that don’t cost you anything. Learn and grow.

IT is the ultimate cargo cult. Everybody thinks it should be easy and fun. How often do you hear somebody who can barely charge their phone say “I’d like to get into IT!” My wife was saying that when I met her. I was able to make her head spin enough with my own knowledge of IT to convince her it’s not a good idea. No, of course, I’m willing to help her, but once she realized what was involved in learning it, and how getting in with no experience is a pay cut and a shitty help desk job, she changed her mind.

I guarantee a lot of IT departments need to start firing people over this WannaCry episode. If you run a business and don’t know much about IT, make sure you bring in someone who does. If you contract with a 3rd party to provide your IT support, make sure they have a plan for obsolescence. What are they going to do when Microsoft releases a new version of Windows and discontinues support for the current one? If their answer is “Oh, it’ll be fine…”, DO NOT HIRE THEM!

Arcologies

This is a technical term I didn’t know before today, although I’m familiar with the concept. An arcology refers to a self-contained building. Basically, in dystopian science fiction, it’s where the entire population is crammed into skyscrapers where they also grow their own food.

This guy takes an engineering and mathematical look at it. Very interesting. I’ll be watching more from his channel.

Android Central: The 5 Worst Things About The Galaxy S8

I have a love/hate relationship with Android. I like to skip around between the various phone platforms so I can maintain knowledge of them. But, Windows Phone is effectively dead, since nobody makes or maintains apps for it and Microsoft just can’t commit to a consumer strategy, and Apple isn’t impressing me lately. All they seem to care about anymore are iMessages and cameras. And jacking up the price point.

My last phone was the Note 5. At one point, I swore it would be my last Android phone. I found it to be buggy and unreliable, but it never blew up, so it had that going for it. The battery life was terrible. My first phone had to be replaced by warranty because the battery would be dead in 3 hours even if I shut everything down and didn’t touch the phone. My replacement didn’t do much better.

Two factors have me locked into Android, and specifically Samsung. Those are:

Lastpass integration
Samsung Pay

We all have so many damned logins and passwords it is impossible to keep track of them all. Everything requires an account. Everything. I have Lastpass pro, which costs $12 a year. On every other device, every time I have to log into an application or website, I have to bring up Lastpass, check my username, copy my password, switch back to the app or website, and paste the password in. On Android (when it works), I just authenticate to Lastpass with my fingerprint and it fills the details in for me. This simplifies life.

I didn’t care much about the mobile payment apps before. Most features the tech companies roll out seem to only matter to people who live in San Francisco or New York. Not so much northern Virginia. I used ApplePay once at Wegman’s when they were running a beta test. Then I found out Samsung pay used a technology called MST, which induces a magnetic field into the credit card reader and works with almost all of them (except gas pumps). So I started using my phone to pay for everything, which is a hell of a lot easier than pulling my wallet out, getting my check card out of its sleeve, swiping, and trying to fit it back into the sleeve. And for now, paying with my phone still blows people’s minds, which is kind of cool.

When it came time to decide what to do about the frustrating and unreliable Note 5, I had a few things to consider. Get an iPhone 6s+ or 7? Wait for the S8? Or get the S7 Edge?

About a month prior to the S8’s release, Samsung started selling the S7 Edge for $200 off to eliminate inventory. I decided to just buy it from them, and did. The S7 Edge had been out for a year and had a proven track record. People I know love them. So I got one.

And when I read things like this, I’m glad I did. I haven’t really heard anything good about the S8. Sure, it’s all pretty and stuff, but like most technology, it’s going backwards. They make a nice design and add a few new features (most of which are pointless), but other than a slightly newer processor, there’s nothing earth-shattering.

The video describes Bixby as a 2012 era Google Now. I’ve never had much use for Google Now. I guess it’s good if you live in San Francisco, take public transportation, care about sports, and can afford to eat at expensive, reservation requiring restaurants.

It supposedly has some feature (powered by Pinterest!) where you can use the camera to get it to show you images similar to what you’re looking at. But it doesn’t look that useful. This is another case of technology going backwards. Back in 2014, I had a Nokia 920. It came with an augmented reality app that was very useful. I don’t remember what it was called, but you could take the phone out, power it up, and scan around. Through the camera, it would give you information about your surroundings, and what was behind them with clickable links that opened in the appropriate app. I haven’t come across anything like it since. I’ve had Google Goggles on my last two phones, and it’s nowhere near as useful as that app on the Nokia 920 was three years ago.

The fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone looks like a serious pain in the ass. I’m fine with scanning my thumb on the front of the phone. It’s convenient, and I don’t have to turn the phone over to do it.

Another backwards feature: say you invite me over. You text me your address. 3 years ago, on the Nokia 920, I could click the address, it would ask me which app to open it in, and I could select Waze. Now, it automatically opens in Google Maps. So I have to manually copy the address, open Waze, and paste it in there so I can navigate over (Google Maps sucks for navigation, and it doesn’t show you where the cops are.)

I’d love to see technology start moving forward again. I’d love to see some truly revolutionary stuff. New ways of rendering the Human/Computer Interface. Augmented reality. But it seems like all we’re getting right now are dual cameras and messaging platforms. And mindless games.

Speaking of which, does anybody remember ICQ from the late 90’s? We had all these IM platforms like AIM, Yahoo, etc., and ICQ tied them all together into a single application. We don’t have that now. iMessages is about the closest thing I’m aware of, but it only works on a complete Apple platform. I’d love to be able to text from my computer and pick the conversation up on my phone, whether I’m using SMS, Signal, Telegram, or whatever.