The Hacks

Tom is a big fan of geneology, are you familiar with it?  If not, it's the study of ones family history, and ancestors.  Chunga's grandparents were big fans of geneology and created a hightly detailed blueprint of how Chunga became Chunga--or so he thought.  Recently, he recieved a report from a company called 23&Me. That report was a bit different than his families documentation!  Tom has also done extensive geneology work, and like Chunga has gotten a similar report from 23&Me.  However, Toms was spot on, and virtually identical!  Tom has been a big fan of 23&Me but they're a company thats on the decline. Why? Its not because of minor, mis-match issues like Chunga's talking about, no. It's because they have a problem that he calls a "regressive gene" in their business model.  Tom couldn't agree more!  So, what is the regressive gene, and do you have a similar problem with your business? Listen NOW to find out! 

Chunga is in a pickle. He doesn't know how to begin an episode where the beginning is the end! This episode of The Hacks, he and Tom are talking about exits.  The whole episode is about leaving things.  First, Chunga has announcement to make.  The time has come for him to make some life changes, but there's no need to worry!  The Hacks podcast is going to continue as it has for the past 5-years!  Be sure to listen every, single, Tuesday! There's another exit on the agenda for this episode. It's not a big story yet, but it will be in the very near future. This exit already has a branded term associated with.  Have you heard of "cloud exit" yet?  If not, you will and very, very soon! Tom has been betting on, and warning people about cloud exit for along time now, primarily becuase he's been watching the trends, and the math for larger companies doesn't add up.   Recent reporting shows that 42% of all US companies are now moving some or all of their IT workflow, and data storage out of the cloud and back to on prem. Industry experts are also saying this is just the beginning. Are the days numbered for the cloud as we have come to know it?  Listen NOW to find out! Read more about "Cloud Exit" Get started with Salt!

For some reason, across all industries, the term "right to repair" has become extremely controversial. The desire to take full control of your tech, car, home, and health is really causing a stir with with a huge cross section of society, including companies and the government! Tom says he completely understands why, because its a complicated issue. Of course, if you buy something and pay taxes on it, it by all rights is yours! You should be allowed to fix it or modify it to your personal satisfaction, right?  Afterall, Chunga and Tom have both been doing that very thing to computers for decades. Unfortunately it's not always that simple. Businesses have designed their products to function a certain way, to accomplish specific outcomes that align with their individual brands. Then, there's your own body. Thats a political and social "hot potato" Tom and Chunga are afraid to even mention. Should you be allowed to manufacture your own medicine? Its your body and your life afterall?  Tom has a lot to say on this topic, in this episode of The Hacks. Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

It's happened... The summer is officially over. It's time for all of us to buckle down and settle in to our normal, non-summer time routines. For some companies and organizations these routines can lead to complacency and laziness.  Which is exactly what the enemy is counting on! As ridiculous as this sounds, there is a growing fear that rogue nations, specifically North Korea are targeting American, and European corporations by having government spies infiltrate organizations by--getting jobs!  Just applying for jobs and working like a normal employee. Turns out, they're virtually impossible to detect, let alone catch. Tom says "It's comical how woefully unprepared we are to combat tactics of this nature". With that said, there are somethings that can be done to help a company determine if employees are legit!  What are they?  Listen NOW to find out! Learn more about Salt!

If we're to believe the press, things are looking really grimm in terms of global conflict. Over the past weekend, Chunga saw dozens of different media outlets all saying that we are closer to World War 3 than we have been since the 1960's.  Some are even saying it has already begun, we just don't know it yet. This coverage has Chunga asking a couple of questions, the largest of which is regarding the global digital network and infrastructure. Tom says he right to be worried! If global conflict breaks out, it's going to be catastropic.  But, he says Chunga's worrying about the wrong things.  It's actually going to be much worse for everyone than he's thinking. The real impact on tech and global infrastructure is going to bring about a total catastorphe. Tom breaks it all down in this episode of The Hacks! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes

Your Social Security Number... If you live in the United States, you've been told, taught and trained, since you were about 12-years old, to guard this numeric form of personal identification with your life! Whelp, congratulations, you just failed. No really, it's true.  Your Social Security number is now out in the wild. Last week, a company called National Public Data announced that they had been hacked and every Social Security number, of every U.S. citizen had been stolen. So, what does this mean to all of us?  Is this something thats really bad, or is it not that big of a deal? Tom and Chunga think they have a pretty good read on the situation and have some advice for everyone, in this episode of The Hacks!  Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

After taking and extended summer holiday, Tom Hatch is back baby! While he was away, Chunga came across and interesting article about "Singlularity". Do you know about the theory and concepts behind Singularity? If you're not familiar, Singularity is that singular moment in time when computers become self-aware, and merge their existence with humanity. This article that Chunga found is from an American computer scientist and futureist named Ray Kurzweil. He claims that because of advancements in A.I., we will acheive Singlularity within the next 21 years. Chunga wants to know what Tom thinks about all of this, and if he agrees with Mr. Kurzweil.  So... Does he?  Listen NOW to find out! Singularity within 21 years! Get started with Salt Project in just a few minutes!

In his other life, Chunga is a voice actor and is a member of several acting unions. Lately, that means he's always on strike for one reason or another.  Well, its happening again... This time, voice actors are striking against the video game industry!  At the center of this mess is A.I.--big shock.  A.I. seems to be a near constant threat to performers in Hollywood, and now there's a growing chorus of video game fans that are pushing back against A.I. being used in video games. They're saying A.I. is ruining the quality of video games!  Chunga is curious and wants to know how dangerous is A.I. in video games, REALLY.  Tom says unlike previous claims in past union strikes, there is very legitimate danger!  He thinks this strike is most definately justified!  Why? Listen NOW to find out!! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Over the weekend, Tom was one of the millions of people that were affected by the massive IT outage caused by CrowdStrike!  How about you? Were you affected the outage? Did you get stranded anywhere? Chunga says, this is what happens when too many people rely on one singular thing. Tom "crushingly" agrees!  He refers to a problem of this type as a "Banana Problem"! In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga will define what the banana problem is, breakdown the the CrowdStrike disaster over the past weekend, and discuss how this unprecedented event may end up changing the future of tech!  Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!!

Tom has lost his wallet!  This has never happened before!  If you find it, will you please let him know? Although his fresh back from his vacation, Tom is feeling anything but relaxed and recharged.  In truth, he feels like he came home to a huge dumpster fire. There's several reasons for this. Sure, the lost wallet is one of the big ones, but he's also came home to multiple different cyber-attacks, each of them much different from the other, but all of them potentially having an affect on him, Chunga, and on all of you! The most recent of these attacks was the data breach at AT&T. That, coupled with several others, including the dark web release of 10 billion plain text passwords, has Tom feeling a little unsettled.  Chunga is surprised by this!  Afterall, now that multi-factor authentication is becoming more and more common, having your passwords out in the wild isn't the catastrophie that it wouldve been a few years ago, right?  Tom says, not so fast...  Why?  Listen now to find out!! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!!

Tom is taking a much needed break. Before he left on his extended holiday, he and Chunga had a chat about the decline of remote work in the tech space. This is one of those rare subjects of which Tom and Chunga passionately disagree. Recently, it has come to light that as many as 25% of tech companies have admitted to using a manditory "return to office" policy as a way of reducing staff, publicly avoiding the ugliness of announcing mass layoffs.  Chunga is someone that has worked from his home office / studio for the majority of his professional life, he loves it!  Tom, on the other hand, not so much. With that said, he has some very strong opinions with regard companies and organizations that choose to use "return to work" as a method of staff reduction.  What does he have to say?  Listen NOW to find out!   Start using Salt in just a few minutes! Learn more here!  

Chunga made an observation recently.  He says we're in the tech industry "silly season"!  Every single day, there's a new, completely crazy, earth-shattering story coming out of a big tech company, somewhere. Tom partially agrees with Chunga, it has been nuts, but he says when it comes to the tech space, it's always the silly season! One of the biggest stories over the past few weeks has been Apple's announcement.  Open AI is going to be added to anvupcoming OS release. In response, Elon Musk announced that his employees would be banned from using Apple iPhones for buisiness.  They'll also be banned from his corporate property. What do you think about all of this?  Is Apple making a mistake by adding Open AI to their iPhones? What about Elon Musk?  Will other companies and organizations follow his lead?  Tom and Chunga have lots of opinions about these quesions, in this episode of The Hacks! Start using Salt in just a few short minutes!

For a long time, Tom has wanted to do an episode of The Hacks that's centered around what he refers to as data center "bloopers". Chunga isn't entirely sure what he means by this. Tom has always been amazed by the cathedral like way in which data centers are built. If you think about it, most data centers are built up and modified over a long period of time. Once your organization can realistically say that the data center is complete, the people that initially planned its construction, and worked on its development, are no longer around. Then, when you add corporate aquisitions into the mix, things become, in a word--chaotic.  Believe it or not, Tom says this confussion and chaos is much better than the real world alternative.  What does he mean by this?  Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Chunga saw an article a few days ago, and it really surprised him! This particular article said that agile software has had a 268% failure rate... 268%. While Chunga is shocked to his this news, Tom isn't surprised at all! How is this possible from and industry perspective? In what world is a 268% failure rate ever accepted? For the record, Tom is NOT a fan of agile software development. To be frank, he hates it, always has! Tom says that agile software is at the core of many of the software industries problems and is the main reason software (generally speaking) doesn't run better.  Tom explains why and breaks it all down in this episode of The Hacks! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Tom loves to innovate, it's who he is, and for him, its an unquenchable thrist. The pressure he puts on himself to create something new, is sometimes unhealthy. At the same time, Tom will also tell you that if he would've understood how hard it was going to be to turn Salt into what it is today, he wouldn't have done it.  Innovation from an emotional and psychological perspective, can be in a word--brutal. Creation is a terrifying task! So... how does one cope, and continue to stay productive? Does Tom have a method to overcome the emotional and psychological challenges that so many (if not all) creative thinkers and innovators face? He sure does!  Listen NOW to find out what his methods are. Here's a hint, these things are really simple!   Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Hey everybody, its Toms birthday!  Happy Birthday old man!! Today on The Hacks, Chunga wants to talk about tech's dirty little secret. This secret, by the way, is how much of the tech industry actually survives! He's talking about "shelfware" and the "cloud shell game".  Tom says between the two, the cloud shell game is actually worse, and more damaging to companies. He also says it's one of the biggest problems is tech. There's a bunch of really dumb reasons that this shell game is allowed happen the way it does, without anyone crying foul! What are Toms reasons?  Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

One thing that's constant in life is change... It's been a bittersweet few days to say the least.  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom Hatch, the creator of Salt, talks with Chunga about the changes taking place in his life and announces his exit from Broadcom.  Yep, the time has come for Tom to explore some new opportunities!  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom wants to share his love, and gratitude for everyone thats been a part of this amazing adventure, including everyone in the Salt Project community. He also wants to talk about whats on the horizon!  Fans of The Hacks can rest easy! One things for sure, Tom and Chunga are going to continue to do The Hacks, and talk about all things tech, every single Tuesday! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! 

It looks like the rumors were true! Recently, IBM announced that they are buying HashiCorp (and Terraform) for a cool 6.4 billion dollars, in cash. Tom and Chunga both find themselves asking the question, "Why did IBM choose to do this?" They already own Red Hat and Ansible. Did they buy HashiCorp / Terraform because they could, or did they buy it because the should? Chunga thinks it's definitely the former. He's also of the opinion that they made this purchase without having an actual plan. Tom, on the other hand, says it's not quite as simple and people think, altholugh Chunga may be right on this one. Why? Listen now to find out! Join the Salt Project Discord server! Start using Salt in just a few minutes!

Tom and Chunga both developed a passion for computers in a similar way. Neither one of them started out as a "software guy". Rather, they each got started by building and modifying their own custom built computers. They were "hardware guys", first! That just how it was back in the day. Today, things seem to be much different, with modern engineers and developers cutting their teeth in software, and staying in that field for their entire careers. Tom says that most modern developers have little to no understanding of the hardware their creations actually run on! Is that a good thing?  Tom will explain many of the reasons this can happen, and he has a bunch of opinions on wether or not it's good for both individuals and companies.  Listen now! Join the Salt Project community and start using Salt in just a few minutes!

We live in strange and challenging times. When it comes to world events, one can find themselves, in a word, conflicted. Thats definitely the case for Chunga when it comes to todays topic. Recently, the U.S. Government voted to continue the practice of warrantless surveillance of its own citizens. Interpol is also joining a growing chorus of law enforcers that want big tech to ditch its use of end to end encryption. What do you think about that? Do you think tech companies should give government agencies a "master key" to their encryption sofware, or end the practice all together?  Are you on the otherside of the discussion?  Is the government outrageously overstepping their bounds and violating the rights of its citizens?  Chunga is conflicted about this. Tom on the other hand isn't. As a former member of the U.S. intelligence community, he has a very thougtful and clear opinion about all of this!  What does he think?  Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Tom and Chunga are tired, TIRED of talking about AI!  They need a dang break from talking about AI!!  Are they going to get a break in this episode of The Hacks?  Nope... Well, ok, kind of. At the start of the year, Tom predicted one of the biggest stories of 2024 will be the failure and ultimate collapse of a whole bunch of AI focused companies and products. The most recent organization to proove Tom right, is Stability AI.  What did they do wrong?  How could they botch things so badly? Will other companies make the bad mistakes?  Tom says "Oh! Most definitely!" Listen now, to learn what those mistakes are and who may be making them next! Get started with Salt in just a few minutes!

Do you remember a few episodes ago, when Chunga said "The tech industry is terrible at this! We're the worst I've ever seen, in any industry, when it comes to taking 20-steps to do something, when it can be done in two!" This episode of The Hacks, is a perfect case study of what Chunga's talking about. Recently, Terraform changed it's license. Shortly after, a group of open source community members forked Terraform and renamed it "Open Tofu".  Last week, it looks like someone within the Open Tofu eco-system has caused an awful lot of trouble. Why? Well, there is a solid accusation that Open Tofu has stolen some new features of a recent release of Terraform. To make things even more contentious and embarassing, they didn't just steal the complete feature set, they also stole the line by line code of the Terraform copywrite itself.  Tom is shocked, asking the question "How could someone be this freakin stupid?!?"  How does something like this happen? More importantly, whats going to happen next? Tom knows exactly why this kind of thing happens, and he has several different examples of what's going to happen next! Listen NOW Join the Salt Project Community Discord Server! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes.

Tom and Chunga have a good one for you today!  Late last week, news broke that an extremely dangerous backdoor CVE, built within the XZ compression library had compromised Linux Debian Unstable and Fedora 40-41.  Fortunately, was discovered before it could hit an enterprise platform! Tom says this particular CVE was especially dangerous and hard to detect because it was built deep into the XZ compression library. As dangerous as it was, it was also brilliant backdoor hack because nobody ever pays any attention to the compression library! Plus, the hacker took an extremely long time to execute his or her plan. It was so smart in fact, that Tom says we're all very lucky it was ever discovered.  Chunga has a theory that this is only the beginning when it comes to what this individual is actually planning. He's of the opinion that this person has several of these CVE's built into multiple open source software platforms.  Does Tom agree with this theory?  Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Tom tells people a lot... a lot. When you choose to pick up or "adopt" open source software, you take on a certain level of liability. If you choose to deploy open source software into your infrastructure you run the risk of that software going away! We've seen this happen several times within the past year. Now things are changing at Redis. Last week, Redis announced it's changing to a dual source license. What does this mean? Well... it basically means it's no longer free for most users. In this episode of The Hacks, explain why they think Redis chose to make this decision, and why Tom says we're going to see more and more of this type of thing within the world of open source. Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Chunga noticed somehting recently, and he's wondering if it's symptomatic of a larger problem. A few weeks ago, a video game emulator company called "Yuzu" was sued by Nintendo. Yuzu folded and disappeared almost immediately. Since then, several other emulator makers have done the same thing.  Many of them have scattered to the four winds! Unfortunately, Chunga is seeing more and more of this type of thing when it applys to other open source companies as well. Tom says Chunga's observation is spot on, and it's a huge problem, a scary problem that will have far reaching impact in the world of open source. In fact, Tom is particularly worried about same thing, but from an infrastructure perspective. Infrastructure? Why? It seems to Chunga that infrastructure is on the rebound with more and more companies choosing to move away from the cloud.  Tom is deeply interested in something called DBOS, or Data Base Operating System. He says its brand new, and REALLY weird. It doesn't use the Linux kernel, and... it's in the cloud. Is this a revolutionary game changer? Tom doesn't know for sure, but he thinks it has the potential due to the fact that open source has always struggled to solve the "Last Mile" problem. Also, smaller open source operations are disappearing at a record rate, while the larger open source organizations are choosing to go "Proprietary".   Then... Tom drops a bombshell on Chunga with a huge rumor thats looking more and more real by the day!  What is it?  Listen NOW to find out!! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Score another one for Tom Hatch!  He and Chunga have been trying to get to this episode for weeks!   As all of you know, Nvidia is king.  At the first of the year, Tom said that if AMD and Intel wanted to have any hope being competetive and gaining ground against Nvidia's AI strangle hold, they'd have to do something "Unthinkable", and team up.  Good call Tom! One of the main reasons Nvidia has been so dominant isn't because their chips are so fast (which they are), it's because the majority of their open source framework is built on top of CUDA. AMD and Intel have invested heavily in trying to come up with an answer to CUDA because their own open source offerings, HIP and ROCm, don't have an open source CUDA compatibility layer. They've both tried for years on their own, to develop one, with each company investing milliions and millions of dollars, only to come up short, and give up. Well, it sounds like both AMD and Intel have been listening to Tom, and their problems may be solved. Listen now to see what they've done!  Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Tom is THRILLED!!! KDE 6 is out! (crickets). Sorry Tom, nobody cares.  Is that what Tom and Chunga are talking about today?  KDE 6? Uh... No.  Chunga doesn't really care either. Instead, they're talking about something everyone loves, video games! More specifically, video game emulators. Tom & Chunga are both big fans of emulators & have owned them for years. However, they both have a rule, they don't have a video game on an emulator unless they've already purchased it at some point.  Historically, game emulators have somehow managed to recieve a substantial amount of legal protection, but a new lawsuit may change all of that. Nintendo has just filed suit against a popular video game emulator called Yuzu.  Do you own one? According to Chunga, unlike other emulator companies, Yuzu is in serious trouble. Tom doesn't disagree. Why?  How is it that Yuzu can be in serious legal trouble, while others have been able to not only survive law suits, but set legal precedence as well?   Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Nividia is big. It's been really big for a long time. Last week it got even bigger!   Nividia had their earnings call late last week and caused quite a stir, in a good way, on Wall Street and it made their stock rise 16% in one day. While Nividia is the big dog, they're definitely not alone. There are more than just a handful of big tech companies that are no longer "big", they're gigantic! There are some in the media and tech experts are saying that these companies like Nividia, Broadcom, and AMD have become too big. So big that their stocks could cause problems with an individuals investment portfolio or greatly affect the overall economy.  Some are even using a phrase that we all heard repeatedly during the housing crisis of 2008, "Too big to fail". Do you agree with that statement? Tom has some very strong opinions about some of the things being said about these big tech companies.  Does he think their stock prices are too inflated? Does he think they're too big to fail, or are things only going to get bigger and better?  Listen now to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Learn more. 

Its embarassing.  Did you see the recent story about how hackers turned 3 million toothbrushes into a botnet in order to steal a bunch of money from people in Europe? Lots and lots of people including Tom and Chunga saw this story and thought it was amazing! Unfortunately, there was a problem... It wasn't real.  The story was completely fake. As an industry, smart, learned people, we all bought it. Why? How does something like this happen? This isn't the first time either. Tom says its completely understandable. Ferris Bueller said it the best, "This world moves pretty fast."  The pressure to produce and get product and information into the marketplace is incredible. We have an unquenchable thrist to be new, shiny and above all things--first.  Chunga says this type of environment has caused a dangerous lack of critical thinking. Not only by innovators and content creators but by customers and consumers as well. Whats more, this is a problem that goes way beyond the tech space. In this episode of The Hacks, Tom & Chunga have some opinions that may be considered by some to be controversial. Regardless, Tom says it's long past time for each of us to start thinking as individuals, and stop buying into group ideologies because their popular or simply created by a like minded group of "experts".  Do they think we as both an industry and society  ever start pushing back and questioning "the best way"?  Listen NOW to find out! Learn more about Salt Project and get started in just a few minutes!

Recently, Chunga was talking with a guy in his teens who was really struggling, and having a hard time with some life and career choices. To many, it appeared that he had simply given up on his interests and goals. During his discussion, Chunga learned that this young man had a strong interest in cybersecurity and "counter-hacking".  Sadly, he was of the opinion that it wasn't possible to make his interests a legitimate career choice without first going underground and becoming one of the bad guys, first. This was obvoiusly causing some problems for both him and his parents! Tom has heard this perception and logic many times before.  It was then, and is now, very concerning to him. He says the world is desperate for talented people like this kid, and we, as an industry aren't doing enough to show interested individuals that there are lots of ways to become an expert in cybersecurity, without getting anywhere the "darkside".   In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga talk about how to start from ground zero. They discuss the various ways that interested people of all ages can get the right education and certifications. They also chat about why the tech industry, including Government and corporate spaces are desperate to find qualified counter-hackers and cybersecurity experts! You want to make a ton of money, in an exciting field, with incredible job security? The Hacks are going to tell you how to get started!  Listen NOW Get started using Salt in just a few, short minutes!  

Chunga is thinking there is going to be a prominent theme for the 2024 season of The Hacks. Last week, the FBI and additional government agencies, announced an imminent attack on United States infrastructure and corporate entities. The group responsible is a Chinese nation state hacker group called "Volt Typhoon".   The FBI has been very public about the extreme urgency related to these incoming attacks, and Chunga has a bunch of questions as to why. For example, why is China being so aggressive, right now, and why is the Federal Government being so vocal and public about it? Is the Chinese Government more desperate, and perhaps less stable than we think they are? Tom says "ABSOLUTELY"! He'll give us an explination why they have chosen to ramp up their nation state cyberattacks at this moment, and help us understand what Volt Typhoon actually is!  Is the Federal Government legitimately worried about this group or are they using the American public to play cat and mouse with China?  Listen now to find out!!  Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Learn how, here!

Have you been following the news story about the airplane that lost one of its doors shortly after take off? Tom has been fascinated with this story.  Chunga has been following it closely, as well. He's honestly shocked that in todays world, something thats as important to a passenger jet as an air tight door, can fall through the cracks and create a potential tragedy.  Luckily, nobody has hurt, let alone killed.  Think about it for a minute. All of those check and balances, all of the goverment regulation, all of the human oversight and still...  Tom looks at this scenario much differently and is frankly suprised that in our world, disasters like this don't happen more!  Especially in our tech industry.  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga talk about how to prepare for when-not if-but when something falls through the cracks and what to do when it happens.  They also talk about the tech industry's acceptance of catasrophic mistakes and how they can be evey bit has tragic as this recent story with the airplane.  Listen NOW! Get started with Salt in just a few minutes!!

Typically, when Tom accurately predicts the outcome of a large event or the large event itself, Chunga will tactfully remind everyone that Tom had previously said something was going to happen. This time however, he feels that Tom really does need to celebrate and take a victory lap, which he would indeed do, if the circumstances weren't so dire.  About a year ago, as conflicts around the world were starting to intensify, Tom said there would also be a "ridiculous uptick in corporate, and financial institution cyberattacks". These attacks would nation states and Russia, in particular. Did you hear the news last week about J.P. Morgan & Chase? They've revealed that they're currently dealing with billions of cyberattacks, every day--every, single, day. In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga talk about why and how these attacks on financial institutions in particular are happening, how thousands of top-teir SecOps professionals are defending against them, and what our world will look like if they fail. Are we, as an industry, doing enough to keep defending against attacks of this volume? Listen now to find out? Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project   

Tom Hatch has long thought that as creators and members of the open source world, the current dogmatic views that are shared by so many, need to change. In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga talk about all of the foundational "stuff" that Tom says isn't working. He says the open source model that we've been using for so long has already started to collapse and will eventually fail.  Tom isn't alone in this way of thinking. There are many other thought leaders and open source creators that are saying the same exact thing! Who else is saying this? By this time next year, how different are things going to be?  Listen now to find out!! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! https://www.idemproject.io

Happy New Year!  Tom and Chunga are back from their extended holiday break! During their time off, Tom went on on a cruise!  He also took a trip to Las Vegas to hang out his old buddy Chunga. They had a great time relaxing and doing things that had nothing to do with work. Althought they tried their best, they eventually did end up talking about the world of tech and what people will be focusing on in the new year.   Tom has previously said on The Hacks that he thinks 2024 is going to be a "nuts and bolts" year, where people and the tech industry is going to focus heavily on the essentials and simplicity. With that said, he thinks this focus will lead to 2024 being a transformative year. It will be a year that will get credit for creating a foundation for the future of tech, for the next 12 to 15 years!  Why does Tom think 2024 is going to such a milestone for the tech industry? Why does he think its going to set the table for nearly two decades of transformation?  Listen now to find out! Learn more and get started using Salt, in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Idem Project! Learn more!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from The Hacks! Tom and Chunga are getting ready for their year end holiday break!  Wow, what an incredible and chaotic year its has been for both of them. As the year comes to a close, The Hacks has historically chosen to spend their last episode reviewing the biggest events of the past 12-months, etc. This year however, Tom has asked to change things up a bit and focus on something super nerdy.  He wants to have fun getting into the weeds of a process hes known about but hasn't bothered doing for decades.  It's called "Compiler Optimization".  Chunga has no idea what that is, but ok!  He's all in to talk about it! As most of you know, Tom loves Arch Linux. It's been his preferred for as long as he can remember. Recently, he learned about a new system that recompiles all of the Arch Linux packages, and optimizes them to current and/or different benchmarks, so that everything runs faster and simply put, better on x86, 64-bit, CPU's.  How does it work and is it something that you should try?  Listnen NOW and decide for yourself! Tom and Chunga would like to thank each and every one of you for listening to The Hacks!  They hope you have a wonderful holiday season and wish you all a Happy New Year!  See you in 2024!!   Get started using Salt in just a few minutes!

Here on The Hacks, Tom Hatch has had a near perfect record when predicting what the coming year is going to look like. In the past, he's delivered all kinds of predictions that were often times completely different than what many of the industry experts were forcasting for that particular year!  Much to Chungas dismay, Tom accurately predicted that the past two years were going to be extremely volatile and challenging. He also correctly predicted record layoffs all accross the tech industry. So... What does he think is going to happen in 2024? Will the coming year be as crazy as the previous two? Will the mass layoffs and volatility continue for another 12-months? Or, is 2024 going to give us all some much needed relief?  Listen NOW to find out?! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! No, really!

2023 has been a wild ride! That statement has been especially true for Tom Hatch and Chunga. Afterall, they were each part of one of the largest tech acquisitions in history!  Yep, they're both overwhelmed and exhausted. To say 2023 had a lot of drama and surprises would be a colossal understatement, so the timing our annual "Toms Biggest Surprises" episode is perfect! Toms biggest surprises for this year may feel a little bit different that they have in years past. That could be because he accurately predicted many of this years larger events, including the increase in political conflict around the world. Tom was surprised not by the events and outcomes themselves, he was instead surprised by the decisions and actions that precipitated and ultimately lead to the events he predicted at the end of last year. So, where did he screw up and where did he get it right? Listen now to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project!

The holidays are here!!  Tom and Chunga couldn't be more excited and they're proud to present The Hacks 2023 Holiday Gift Guide! Are you looking for techie gadgets and gifts for family members, co-workers, bosses, or maybe your own employees? If so, this episode is perfect for you! Tom and Chunga have some of their favorite tech based items that are virutally guranteed to brings smiles to even the hardest person to buy for on your list! They have goodies in almost every price range and they personally own and use everything that they've put in this years list! Get a solid jumpstart on this years holiday shopping with The Hacks!  Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project!

Tom and Chunga would like to wish all of you, no matter where you are, a Happy Thanksgiving! It's become a tradition here on The Hacks! Every year at this time, Chunga sits down with Tom for a special Thanksgiving episode called "Things Tom Is Thankful For"!  Historically, this episode is one of the more popular episodes of the entire year, thanks to Toms unique and somewhat quirky answers!  This year however, Tom may surprise you. Rather than spending the time talking about tech, Tom has chosen to be more personal. 2023 has been an interesting and challenging year. Maybe thats what makes this particular episode so special. What is Tom thankful for in 2023? Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with just a few lines of code, thanks to Idem Project!

A few months ago, Red Hat made the decision to restrict it's source code. As much as it pains Tom to say, he thinks Red Hat was smart to do it, even though its a move thats been fairly unpopular with its own community and users. It proves that Red Hat understands something Tom calls the "Trinity of Open Source". Chunga is curious about the impact these decisions will have over other open source projects and companies. Additionally, he wonders how much influence Red Hat actually has in the open source space in todays world. Tom has many opinions and thoughts to answer Chunga's curiosity about this area. For years, Red Hat has been the example and model of how open source companies choose to operate. However, as companies have evolved over the years, that may no longer be the case according to Tom.  Why?  Listen now to find out!  Get started with Salt in just a few minutes!

Tom and Chunga are both gearheads. They both love getting into the weeds, and learning everything they can about pretty much anything, not just computers! No matter what it is, they love to do their research.  When it comes to research, data, and benchmarks, unfortunately there's a problem. Depending on where you look and how look, research can give us a mountain of conflicting information. This data can oftentimes be greatly skewed to favor a desired outcome, and it can be done without being deceptive, even though its inaccurate! In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga talk about the importance of conducting proper research and how to look at benchmarks and data in order to accurately formulate an opinion or result.  Listen NOW! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project!

A.I., Artificial Intelligence. When you look back on 2023, A.I. will definetely be remembered as the biggest industry term of the year--but, can companies actually make money with it? From a business perspective,A.I. is fairly counter intuitive according to Tom Hatch. Companies are dumping massive amounts of money into video cards and assorted hardware, and they're not making money with any of it! Why? Simply put, A.I. has yet to deliver a substantive, targeted, solution. Chunga says while A.I. is cool, and very exciting, it's still a mess. Its potential is a long way from being truly understood. Does Tom have an opinion on how the industry can make that happen?  He sure does, listen now to find out what he says! Get started using Salt Project in just a few minutes! Take a look at Idem Project!

Nvidia is a beast. It has become an absolute monster. Chunga isn't surprised at all, he's been an Nvidia fan boy for decades!  The industry on the other hand, seems to be very surprised at how quickly Nividia has been able to become the top dog, in the chip space.  This rise has some industry experts asking if it's even possible for competitors like AMD and Intel to compete. Tom says it's very possible and he has the answer on how AMD and Intel can catch Nvidia very quickly. Not only that, he says that he has a way AMD can double their stock price in just 18-short months and it's easier and cheaper than they may think it is.  Here's a hint, Tom says the key to winning is Open Source.  How?  Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project.

Tom and Chunga are kind of stuck.  Over the weekend, the whole world changed its focus. In light of everything that is currently happening in Israel, they're having a hard time trying to talk about anything unrelated without sounding incredibly tone-deaf. Because of this, Tom & Chunga--while being ultra cautious and respectful to those that are suffering--have chosen to talk about something that's safer. It's something that Chunga is seeing, and says the media is getting completely wrong. Throughout this tragedy, there have been tons of reports about how this war was started in part due to an "intelligence failure". Chunga disagrees with this. He says this narrative is highly inaccurate, if not completely wrong altogether.   Tom, who has a long history as a member of the U.S. intelligence community says Chunga is 100% correct. He believes the media should work harder to understand the complexities of how Governments gather intelligence, in order to better inform the public about how horrors, like the ones we're all currently seeing can happen; despite the best efforts of extremely smart, hard working, dedicated professionals. In Toms opinion, the attacks that were started in Israel over the weekend were not the result of an intelligence failure, becuase sometimes is not possible to get intelligence to begin with.  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom talks with Chunga about the differend types and methods governments use to gather intelligence about an enemy, and explains how that information can often times sketchy, incomplete and or completely non-exsistant.  Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project!  

Somehow, while watching Tom eat a sandwich, Chunga managed to equate Toms lunch to Kubernetes and containerization. Once again proving--Chunga is a genius. Tom says Kubernetes has its place and purpose, but it has fallen far short of the intense hype that surrounded it when it first came on to the scene. He remembers a time, back in 2015, when people boldy declared that "all infrastructure will be Kubernetes!" This is something that Tom has never believed. Furthermore, he says universal distributed computing is still a long way from being realized.  Why is that? After all this time and evolution, one would think that distributed computing, and data centers would be simple and common place in todays world. Tom has a singular reason why this is not the case. He also says that distrubuted computing is a unicorn, and going to remain so until this one, single, reason is standarized. What is it?  Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project!

Have you been following this story in the news? A few days ago, MGM Resorts and Ceasars Palace suffered massive cyber-attacks, just days apart! Although they were close in timing and proximity, each company handled their respective attack differently. Both intrusions were ransomware attacks, executed by using social engineering. Ceasars Palace chose to pay millions in ransomware, while MGM refused.  In this episode of The Hacks, Tom and Chunga discuss who made the right decision. Was it MGM or was it Ceasars Palace? The also talk about social engineering and why Tom says it's the least understoon, most mysterious, and often times most effective method of cyber-attack. How did these attacks happen? Which company was ultimately better off, based on their strategies and decisions? Listen NOW to find out! Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud with Idem Project

Last week, Tom lost someone who was central figure in his life. Dr. Micheal Grady was a professor of at Southern Utah University and was a personal mentor of Tom's. In truth, he wasn't just a mentor. Dr. Grady was the first person to recognize Toms early potential to become an innovator in tech. When Dr. Grady passed away, his wife called Tom and asked him to come to their current home in New Mexico to help her go through his personal office in order to catalogue and organize his personel effects. While going through his mentors notes and writings, Tom was amazed to see the empasis he had placed on having longevity as an innovator, right up to his death. It's something that has really stuck with Tom since he's been back home. In this episode of The Hacks, Tom pays tribute to his mentor, Dr. Grady and talks with Chunga about the importance of pushing yourself forward, every day, regardless of success and/or level of experience. Spoiler: Tom uses Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones as an example!  Listen NOW!   Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Idem Project!

WOW!  The Hacks has been extra technical lately!  With all the drama surrounding changes to open source licensing at HashiCorp, and source code restricitions at Red Hat, recent Hacks episodes have been...well, complex and heavy.  Tom and Chunga would like to lighten things up a bit.  Maybe have an episode thats more light hearted and fun!  Tom has the perfect topic to talk about, Quantum Resistant Cryptography and Quantum Computing! (Chunga starts to "ugly cry"). Tom loves quantum computing and is surprised how little its understood by professionals within the tech space.  In this episode of The Hacks, he's going to show everyone (including Chunga) how easy quantum computing actually is!  Tom says it represents a wholesale shift in modern day computing. Not only that, he's saying it will be much sooner than people think!   How soon?  How big?  Listen to this episode to find out!!   Get started using Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Idem Project  

As you all know, the U.S. Government has announced a crackdown on Chinese computer chip manufacturers. There is currently an effort underway to restrict and in some cases completely eliminate the sale of Chinese made computer chips to U.S. owned companies. Some experts claim that this quasi-embargo is going to cripple American commerce!  Tom is predicting a different potential outcome. He says these restrictions are going to be devastating to the Chinese government interests and businesses. So much so, that it could potentially be a precursor to conflict. History has proven that all nation state conflict is ultimately based on economics! When the economic balance of rival nations shifts too far to one side or the other, conflict becomes a viable equalizer. Listen to this episode to learn more! Get started with Salt in just a few minutes! Simplify and stabilize your could with Idem Project!

Open Source madness continues! With all of the changes taking place within a few of the worlds largest open source offerings, many are starting to ask lots of questions.  A bunch of those questions are about long term maintainership and how their own infrastructure will be affected. On the heels of two huge announcements from Red Hat and HashiCorp, there are now two large, promised communities that are asking "what are we going to do"?  Tom says these questions have already led to discussions about "consortium forking". Back in the day, forking open source software was often times viewed as a threat, leveraged by community members to get what they want from an open source software provider. According to Tom, forking open source software can be a good thing--sometimes.  This primarily if you're forking the software to accomplish specific internal needs of your infrastructure. However, when a decision is made to fork a large, consortium based, open source entity, things get much more difficult--thanks to long term maintainership--and ultimately ends with the wholesale splintering of a community. Why is it assumed that this will happen, and is there a way to prevent it?  Listen to this episode to find out! Get started using Salt! Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Idem Project!