What's happening in Tech: December 20th

#news

Here's what happened this week in Tech:

New Stuff

Amazon, Apple, Google, Zigbee Alliance and board members form working group to develop open standard for smart home devices - This group is being formed to attempt to establish some standards around home devices (IoT). The goal is to create a common language for developers with security in mind.

Why this matters: It's the wild west right now and IoT is a security nightmare. If successful this should help a lot.

Cloud

A lot of talk this week about GCP shutting down in 2023 if they don't beat Azure and AWS. Personal opinion: it's too early to speculate or make decisions based on these claims. But people are talking about it a lot this week.

Why this matters: If true this may make your organization hesitant about large investments in Google Cloud.

News Items:

Google Brass Set 2023 as Deadline to Beat Amazon, Microsoft in Cloud
Google shifts cloud computing strategy

DevOps

The Unicorn Project made the Wall Street Journal bestsellers list. This is the follow up to the Phoenix Project, a bestselling DevOps book that's a fictional account of Bill Palmer, who has been handed a "death march project" that must be turned around. The Unicorn Project (7 years later) is an account of that same project from Maxine Chambers, a lead developer, and architect.

The book is being praised as being more in touch with today's tech climate. It addresses modern issues facing tech organizations.

AI/ML

Machine learning is used in new and creative ways, including increased measurement of things we've only dreamed of measuring before. It's also being used to increase the quality of life for humans.

Machine learning helps tame a sea of plankton species data

Machine Learning Tool Uses EHR Data to Predict Dementia Risk

The Machines Are Learning, and So Are the Students

Security / Privacy

What does your car know about you? We hacked a Chevy to find out. - This article goes in-depth about the amount of information cars collect about us. Serious security implications here.

Google Nest or Amazon Ring? Just reject these corporations' surveillance and a dystopic future - a lot of talk this week in security circles about Nest and Ring.

There were videos posted over the weekend of some Ring doorbells that have been hacked, but to be clear they were hacked by people using passwords from databases where Ring users were using the same passwords they used elsewhere, it wasn't necessarily a flaw in the product.

Why this matters: Security is always a high concern, and with the number of devices out there collecting data, it's becoming more of a challenge for them to keep data secure.