We’re off to a good start as I correctly listed the date above as 2025. Hopefully it’s not all downhill from here. Also hoping that you enjoyed Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, and any other holiday or event you celebrated over the past few weeks. We had a busy holiday season as always, with a few days of work mixed in, and now we’re getting back to the real world. Next week, we’ll actually be back to five day work weeks…
Keeping in mind that the premise of this newsletter is to give you three good topics of conversation for your next cocktail or dinner party (thanks, as always, Elizabeth), you’re probably taking it easy this weekend… so, keep these in your back pocket for when you’re back to socializing. Enjoy.
Something about ...
Vehicle Data
Next time you’re on your way to the local brothel, you might turn off the geolocation services on your vehicle. Travis and Nancy both sent me articles on the fact that data for Volkswagen’s 800,000 electric vehicles was leaked. And while VW claims that there was no personal data (user names, passwords, payment info, etc.), the data did include information like where drivers took their cars… including brothels.
Trademarked Scents
There are 15 trademarked scents in the United States, including that of Play-Doh (I think we’d all know that if we smelled it). Also included are two different shoes (odd), a bowling ball, and shoe polish.
Threats and Trends
It’s the beginning of the year which always means lists of tips and trends. In this case, we have threats to prepare for in 2025, including zero day exploits, supply chain attacks, and remote work exploits. Sounds just like 2022, 2023, and 2024. We also have a list of AI trends for 2025, including security, augmentation, and exploits.
Foreign Hackers
Curious about all the different cyber tactics being used between Palestine and Israel? Here’s a good, high-level overview. More importantly, the Chinese hacked into the Department of Treasury… of course the response is “they were all unclassified documents”, which means we probably just lost a bunch of state secrets.
Unintentional Recordings
Apple has agreed to pay up to $95M for users of Siri-enabled devices from 2014-2024. Don’t get too excited, though… the cap is $20/person. According to the settlement, Siri was “unintentionally” recording conversations and then using the data to feed targeted advertising to users. Kinda like the day I walked into the office in 2018 and one of our engineers told me he’d just been to the new Indian restaurant on Chagrin Blvd. Within five minutes, Yelp (an app I never use) popped up a message on my lock screen listing the best Indian restaurants near me.
British Dinosaurs
This one is totally random but really interesting. British researchers have found “trackways” up to 150 meters long from five different dinosaurs in the floor of a local quarry. A worker using an excavator to remove clay felt strange bumps as he dug, and they turned out to be foot prints from 166 million years ago when Britain was a tropical area.
2024
Just as somebody always puts out a list of things to watch for in 2025, there’s always a list of the top X of 2024. In this case, I figured I’d share with you the top five articles (based on number of clicks) that I sent out this past year. Included are two on baseball, one on hockey, one on hotels, and one about city hall; The 2017 piece about the St. Louis Cardinals hacking the Houston Astros came in first, followed by the 2024 hack of Cleveland City Hall (we don’t think the Browns or Indians were involved in that one). Next was a piece ranking the coolest hotels in each state, followed by the Delaware River mud used to rub baseballs (from 2019), and finally, a piece about the passing of my friend and fellow hockey coach, Steve Bogas. (Thanks to Nancy for digging through a year’s worth of newsletters to find the most clicked links.)
Nancy's Nuggets
Who needs AI? When I retire, I’m going to harass spammers and scammers like this woman does. Even though Seinfeld thought of it first.
Nancy also sent me this bit on the forthcoming (maybe) ban on TikTok. I’m not concerned as I don’t use it, but am concerned about the fact (from the article) that 20% of Americans now get their news (if what they’re sharing is really news) from influencers.
That’s all for this week. I’m told that I need to fire up the snowblower when I get home, and that’s always a sign that we’ve had a lot of snow! Good news to end the week. Better news is that the Buckeyes have at least one more game to play (if they keep going as they have in the first two playoff games, they’ll be tough to beat… but they still have Ryan Day on the sidelines, so one never knows). And the best news of all is that the Browns only have one game left! That’s cause for celebration.
Have a great weekend.
Abbey