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Topic 1: Apple Healthcare. Are you onboard?
Apple is considering direct health care. So, they’re testing out a service with their own employees. Of course it all started with data. Now they’re connecting devices and data to actual hands-on clinical care.
Are you comfortable with this care from an IT company? If so, is Apple the company?
Link: – https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22536623/apple-primary-care-project-data-watch-app
Topic 2: Do we need a Federal Agency for Data Privacy?
Proposed legislation would create a data privacy agency for the United States. Good? Bad? Or just ugly? We discuss.
Once again, we note that legislation and compliance are the wave of the future.
Link: – https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/6/17/22536907/gillibrand-data-protection-act-privacy
Topic 3: Can AI Measure Joy?
Talkwalker is a company that uses AI to help find information across the Internet using artificial intelligence. Now they’ve applied their technology to evaluate how much users love specific brands. We list the big results, but also focus on a fun result: Choosing a much-loved brewery.
Quote: “The brewery scored more than 15 points in the category defined by artificial intelligence-identified expressions of joy. Average Joy Score for the top 50 most loved brands was 4.”
Links: – https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2021/06/great-lakes-brewing-co-lands-on-list-of-worlds-most-beloved-brands.html – https://www.talkwalker.com/resource/report/love-brand-report-eng-2021-final.pdf
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Vendor Memo:
This podcast is sponsored by the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community. Check us out at www.SmallBizThoughts.org.
Forms, templates, and checklists are just the start. Our Community includes ALL of the best-selling books on managed services in all available formats, plus free training, members-only programs, and the best business training available to managed service providers anywhere.
Plus, we have weekly live members-only Zoom calls. The average member saves more than 200% of their membership cost each year. We are totally dedicated to YOUR success.
Just because you’re in business for yourself doesn’t mean you have to go it alone. Join us today at www.SmallBizThoughts.org.
🙂
Topic 1: Is “Patch and Zero Trust” Even Possible?
What does doing something different look like? How much do we need to rethink all this? Or, perhaps, is it possible to provide appropriate security at the small end of the market but impossible at the enterprise level?
With the explosion of IOT, security may in fact be impossible. If that’s true, what else can we do?
Topic 2: Status update on getting back to the Office
This is still an evolving story. Workers would like to stay home more; managers would like them to be in the office more. This might be the biggest change to come out of the pandemic/recession of 2020-2021.
Link: https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/16/your-boss-might-tell-you-the-office-is-more-secure-but-it-isnt/
Topic 3: Amazon “burning through” employees
What does this tell us about Amazon? And since they are a massive employer, does this massive turnover affect the larger employment market?
Employee churn is so high that some Amazon execs are reportedly worried about running out of people.
Links: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-turnover-worker-shortage-2021-6
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/15/us/amazon-workers.html
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Vendor Memo:
Did you know that the average MSP spends 10 hours manually inputting accounting data each week? That time is 120 prospect calls, a month’s worth of the Business of Tech, or building an entire lego death star. Gozynta Mobius can make your life easier through accounting automation. Automatic sync of invoices, expenses and inventory from ConnectWise Manage into QuickBooks Online in just a single click of a button.
With onboarding, direct support, and regular feature releases, Gozynta is a family owned company dedicated to making software suck a little less each day. Visit us at Gozynta.com
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Topic 1: FBI Creates Their own App to Snag Hundreds of Bad Guys Around the World
Yes – we use the word “Badass.”
We know you’ve heard about this one by now. But it’s the biggest cyber story of the year, so we have to cover it. Great article/press release from the FBI.
A few summary notes: 800 arrests; 8 tons of cocaine; 22 tons of marijuana; 2 tons of methamphetamine/amphetamine; 6 tons of precursor chemicals; 250 firearms; and more than $48 million in various worldwide currencies. On top of that, the FBI has initiated dozens of public corruption cases.
. . . and MORE!
Topic 2: AI Hall of Shame
Great new resource to help AI stay on the right side of “ethics.” The actual artificial intelligence database is at https://incidentdatabase.ai. This is intended to be a resource to remind us all that AI honestly has a potentially evil side that we need to keep track of.
https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-hall-shame/
The database: https://incidentdatabase.ai/
Topic 3: Supreme Court Rules on Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
The ruling is, basically, that misusing a computer to which you have access is different from using a computer beyond the level of access you are supposed to have. The said that a police officer didn’t “hack” any part of the computer system. He merely used the computer he had access to to do something he shouldn’t have done.
Note two things. First, we have really old laws written before the web existed, and they are being used to regulate today’s behavior. Second, the courts, as a rule, do not understand what we do for a living. WE need to be involved in the way our industry is regulated.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/03/supreme-court-hacking-cfaa-ruling/
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Sponsor Note:
Are you still relying on a frustrating patchwork of legacy solutions? Modernize your cybersecurity and data protection with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. It’s a single solution that combines backup, anti-malware, and endpoint protection management. As an MSP, you can easily improve clients’ security posture, eliminate complexity, and generate more recurring revenue. Learn more about Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud at Acronis.com.
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Topic 1: Amazon devices will soon automatically share your Internet with neighbors.
Amazon introduces “sidewalk” network sharing.
This feature is ON by default. At this point, Amazon’s new mesh network sharing is experimental. How do you feel about that? Is this OK from Apple but not from Amazon?
Read in Ars Technica: https://apple.news/AfIgdLQgQRZyr-N3QGbK69A
Topic 2: The Era of the Digital Leash is well on its way. Now add some AI analysis.
Bosses putting a ‘digital leash’ on remote workers could be crossing a privacy line. We’ve reported about watching both students and employees. Now we find this constant monitoring moving into warehouses and more types of employees. We seriously question whether this is a good thing.
Read in CNBC:
https://apple.news/ATt9jvg7uR1ihlKylsRprMA
Topic 3: Emotion-tracking AI.
Even if we can, should we?
Emotion-detection AI meets eye-tracking technology. A major merger claims to be able to tell how you’re feeling (when driving).
The really interesting question is, what other applications could use this technology? AI that can recognize emotions has the ability to bring us more-social robots as well as improve customer service chatbots.
The emerging question with AI seems to be: Should we?
Read in ZDNet: https://apple.news/AW3l5FPbjRymvie18rh7V_A
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Sponsor Note:
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Be sure to ask about PC Matic’s exclusive lead sharing program for MSPs backed by a prime time national TV campaign.
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Topic 1: Google Replaces Bert with MUM
At I/O 2021, Google introduced MUM — Multitask United Model. According to Google, this new language model is 1000 times more powerful than BERT, the search engine they released in 2019. MUM is coming to Google products sometime in the future.
Note: BERT = Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.
Did BERT change your life two years ago? Will you actually notice the move to MUM?
https://yoast.com/google-bert/
Topic 2: Drones as first response to 911 calls.
The Chula Vista police drones can now cover 100% Of of the City For Emergency Calls. And they are deploying drones at “first response” to emergency calls. Of course the drones have video recording and two-way communications.
Channel note: Go get some of this money!
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/mar/19/chula-vista-police-drones-100-city-emergency-calls/
Topic 3: Forum topic – Ethical vs Contractual obligation
Warning: Tough discussion of ethics in business. What do you and your clients owe each other? Can you limit your client relationships to transactions?
And in the area of security, can you actually inform clients enough that they can make good decisions to operate at a lower level of security? How do we begin to talk about standards around these conversations? It’s fine to say “Buyer beware” – but only if the buyer has some chance of understanding what that really means.
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Sponsor Memo:
Are you still using on-prem file servers and VPNs to share files with remote workers? Egnyte is a business class cloud sharing solution that works more like your on-prem server than other solutions. With a security first approach to file sharing and collaboration, Egnyte offers multiple options for sharing files and collecting files from outside sources. And do it all addressing data governance and compliance. Want to learn more? Check out https://Egnyte.com/msp. And when you do, tell them we sent you.
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Topic 1: Does the obvious stupidity in the Crypto-verse help to increase or decrease the adoption of crypo currencies?
A bit of crypto news this week. But on the serious side, what does this activity mean?
Elon Musk makes fun of crypto currencies and the market goes wild (down). Dogecoin created as a joke. Now it’s going crazy. Then two winners created a spinoff coin because “people seem to like dogs” and became millionaires.
https://u.today/dogecoin-spin-off-turns-struggling-brothers-into-overnight-millionaires
https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/5/18/22441831/elon-musk-bitcoin-dogecoin-crypto-prices-tesla
Topic 2: Ann Arbor to Launch Autonomous Shuttle Service October 11th
But there’s one already operating in Fairfax, VA. We have some questions about the experience . . . and we send Dave off to do some homework.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/transportation/autonomous-shuttle-pilot
Topic 3: Lower hash rates, and video cards that aren’t graphics cards.
NVidia is finally making some moves to tackle the shortage of video cards despite the continuing chip shortage. They’re designing video cards with lower hash rates, so they’re not attractive to crypto-miners. And they’re creating cards designed for mining with actual video output.
We’ll see what competitors do, and how quickly this has a visible effect on graphic card availability for plain old gamers.
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Sponsor Memo –
Did you know that the average MSP spends 10 hours manually inputting accounting data each week? That time is 120 prospect calls, a month’s worth of the Business of Tech, or building an entire Lego death star. Gozynta Mobius can make your life easier through accounting automation. Automatic sync of invoices, expenses and inventory from ConnectWise Manage into QuickBooks Online in just a single click of a button.
With onboarding, direct support, and regular feature releases, Gozynta is a family owned company dedicated to making software suck a little less each day. Visit us at https://gozynta.com
🙂
Topic 1: Military practices controlling hundreds of robots and drones at once – with AI
Like it or not, AI is coming to military operations. It might be cheaper, but is it safer? But is the reliance on AI a problem?
Links:
Topic 2: What can we learn from the Colonial Pipeline hack?
How should companies respond? And are there real consequences for companies that get hacked?
We discuss.
Topic 3: Proposed law says discriminatory behavior should not be subject to non-disclosure agreements.
Is the NDA … too much?
Ifeoma Ozoma is a technology policy expert with experience leading global public policy efforts at Pinterest, Facebook and Google. When she left Pinterest, she couldn’t tell anyone that she left over complaints she had filed about wage discrimination and retaliation. She could not speak out because the company non-disclosure agreement forbid it.
Now she is pushing legislation to make it illegal to include this kind of behavior in NDAs. After all, NDAs are intended to protect intellectual property, not potentially illegal behavior.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/10/pinterest-discrimination-ifeoma-ozoma-nda
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Sponsor Memo –
Are you still relying on a frustrating patchwork of legacy solutions? Modernize your cybersecurity and data protection with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud. It’s a single solution that combines backup, anti-malware, and endpoint protection management. As an MSP, you can easily improve clients’ security posture, eliminate complexity, and generate more recurring revenue. Learn more about Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud at Acronis.com.
🙂
Topic 1: Burger King diverts McDonalds customers – via Waze
This one is kinda cool because it’s so sneaky. With just a taste of big data. When people are close to a McDonalds billboard and headed toward a restaurant, Waze lures them off to a Burger King instead. Just sneaky, or actually immoral?
Link:
Topic 2: Girl Scout Cookies by Drone
Not a burrito or pizza. But it’s pretty cool to get your cookies by drone. Makes us ponder: Are there things you would actually pay a premium to get via drone? We’re thinking yes for cookies, and probably no for a ream of paper.
Link:
https://dronelife.com/2021/05/02/girl-scout-cookies-by-drone-wing-helps-local-troop-deliver-video/
Topic 3: Basecamp Fumbles the Diversity and Inclusion Conversation
Background: Some folks at Basecamp were doing something stupid (keeping a list of customer names to make fun of). That led to a discussion of appropriate behavior. But that discussion was cut off from the top. Some employees were still unhappy, and vocal about it. That led to an offer of a severance package for anyone who didn’t like it. Well, about one third of the company decided to leave!
Link:
https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/4/22419799/basecamp-ceo-apologizes-staff-new-post
Sponsor Memo:
PC Matic — Endpoint Security built on a zero trust philosophy, allowing only trusted applications and blocking all the rest. Light weight, simple to deploy, easy to manage, find out about PC Matic’s unique lead sharing program for MSPs backed by a prime-time national TV campaign. Together, we bring advanced security solutions combined with more than sales enablement … we bring actual leads. Find out more about PC Matic by visiting PCMatic.com/msp/.
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Topic 1: Hacked Ice Cream Makers at McDonalds
A very strange right to repair! If you buy an expensive machine, do you have the right to buy a third-party add-on that makes it work better?
https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/
Topic 2: EU looking to regulate “High-Risk” AI
High risk determined in two steps by considering whether it may cause certain harms and, if so, the severity of the possible harm and the probability of occurrence.
Possible damages include – death of a person – damage of property – systemic adverse impacts for society at large – adverse impact on financial, educational or professional opportunities of persons – adverse impact on the access to public services and any form of public assistance – adverse impact on [European] fundamental rights
Topic 3: Apple Announces AirTags. Do you care?
Apple’s new AirTags just launched with tracking and location data … and they’ve also thought ahead to include an “anti-stalker” feature to protect your privacy.
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/airtag-vs-tile
Sponsor Note:
Want to learn about Trends in Managed Services, increasing sales, governance or winning in Biopharma? How about an MSP peer panel, or CompTIA’s Carolyn April with their latest research in managed services trends? Egnyte’s first annual MSP summit is coming May 11th, keynoted by Karl Palachuk on setting a cloud strategy. The first 300 attendees even get a copy of Karl’s book on becoming a Successful MSP in 30 days! Win prizes, network with peers, all in a half day online event. Register for free right at engyte.com/mspradio
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Topic 1: Racist (and other offensive) Tech Jargon
Words matter. The most obvious example is “master/slave” but there’s plenty of other insensitive terminology around. Remember, these terms might make sense to you, but you clients may hear it and wonder exactly what you’re talking about.
Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/technology/racist-computer-engineering-terms-ietf.html
Topic 2: Facial Recognition Update.
Facial Recognition has evolved considerably in the pandemic. It has been banned in a few places. It has been regulated a bit at the local (not federal) level.
Amateurs are now getting in the game (e.g., Used to identify police during protests). And the police have adopted it for several purposes, including identifying protesters. It is over-used in China, and illegal in Portland.
Big picture: Don’t rely on tech for the answer. Looks to society and local governments.
https://www.wired.com/story/how-face-recognition-destroy-anonymity/
Topic 3: The ethics of geo-location technology.
The “Ethical Geo” web site has posted ten founding principles to begin a worldwide conversation about using geo-location technology from an ethical perspective.
The ten founding principles presented to the public for further input and refinement are:
We discuss.
Links:
https://ethicalgeo.org/launching-the-locus-charter/
Launch related video webinar – https://vimeo.com/528738906
Sponsor Memo:
Want to learn about Trends in Managed Services, increasing sales, governance or winning in Biopharma? How about an MSP peer panel, or CompTIA’s Carolyn April with their latest research in managed services trends? Egnyte’s first annual MSP summit is coming May 11th, keynoted by Karl Palachuk on setting a cloud strategy. The first 300 attendees even get a copy of Karl’s book on becoming a Successful MSP in 30 days! Win prizes, network with peers, all in a half day online event. Register for free right at engyte.com/mspradio
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