Hoping you’ve had a good week and have been enjoying the awesome late summer weather we’ve had. The flowers and plants aren’t thrilled, but they’re not going to be around much longer, anyway. Looks like we’re going to have more good weather through the weekend, too. Meantime, it seems to have been a pretty quiet week in the world of technology. The new iPhones are in stores today, and there’s the usual hacker news, but neither of those are out of the ordinary. We’ve signed two new clients this week (nice work, Francisco and Miller) and have a couple more on the verge. Otherwise, it’s status quo here at Ashton’s world headquarters.
Scroll down to get caught up on stone skippers, Battleship, Salesforce, Uber drones, and more. Enjoy!
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iPhone 17
The iPhone 17 hits retailers today and if you’re not sure which one to get, here’s a comparison guide. I have my eyes on the orange Pro, whenever it’s time for me to upgrade. It’s time for a better camera.
Salesforce Hackers
If you’re using Salesforce, keep your eyes open as two different hacking groups are trying to gain access to your data. In this case, they’re acting as “IT Support” to try and convince users to allow them access. As with any instance of somebody calling you and trying to convince you to provide access, ‘trust but verify’. Chances are, IT won’t be calling you. They have too much other stuff to do. Hang up, call your IT department back, and ask if somebody is trying to gain access. If they are, that’s fine. But now you look good for doing the right thing!
Cheaters
There’s an old adage that says “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” But in a stone skipping competition? Wow.
Toy Hall of Fame
The 2025 finalists for the Toy Hall of Fame have been announced, and I’m a bit confused. While Battleship, Catan, and Trivial Pursuit are all great games, I see a game as being different than a toy. And is snow really a toy?
Vibe Hacking
Hackers recently used Claude AI to break into 17 different businesses, encrypt their data, and request ransom payments. This is the first known example of an AI system handling every piece of a hacking attack, starting with researching targets to looking for vulnerabilities, then generating the malicious code and creating ransom notes.
Equal Opportunity
Thanks to the RaccoonO365, even those of us who have very little technical skill could get into phishing. Now that Microsoft took down 338 of the hacking group’s websites, however, I may have to look elsewhere for illicit fund-raising schemes.
Nancy's Nuggets
A Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant basketball card recently sold for close to $13M. I’m with the expert quoted in the article complaining about “manufactured rarity”.
Uber will soon start testing drone Uber Eats deliveries in conjunction with an Israeli manufacturer of drones. If it’s anything like the prices for Doordash, I’ll continue driving to pick food up and communicating with real people.
British grocery stores are now rolling out avocado ripeness testers. As one who makes a lot of guacamole, I find it pretty easy to test whether the avos are ready to use; if they’re bright green, they’re probably not. And if they’re rock hard, they’re definitely not. No need for some fancy machine.
I’ll leave you with the poor Chicago Bears fan who’s glad he’s not a Browns fan. He decided that he’d run a specific distance in miles equal to the number of points by which the Bears lose each game. Last week, they lost by 31, and he had his run completed by 10P that Sunday night. Looking at last year’s stats, the Bears average point differential by game was -3.53, while the Browns were at -10.41 (good for 25th worst out of 32 teams). Fortunately, the Indians are playing great ball and making a playoff run, so we can continue to ignore the Browns for at least another week!
Have a great weekend.
Abbey