Podcasts about OpenDNS

Using a digital wallet and password manager, Does Elon have Admin Access? My Cox POTs line is not working, Cutting the Cable now what do I do? Setting up a Proton Email account, My computer says OpenDNS is not green, UK ordering Apple to not allow citizens to encrypt their iCloud Accounts.

FTC urged to make smart devices say how long they will be supported, Apple Magic Pencil, 8 year old Lenovo freezing up, E-Cycle event, Columbus Ohio hack, Task manager usage on my old PC, 2FA issues, Can't seem to configure OpenDNS.

Nand Mulchandani joined the Central Intelligence Agency as its first-ever Chief Technology officer in 2022, but his career started a long way from Langley.  With degrees from Cornell, Harvard, and Stanford, he spent more than 25 years in tech as a serial entrepreneur and senior executive.  He then served as the Chief Technology Officer and Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), before joining the CIA. In this episode of the Defense Tech Underground, Nand discusses working astride the worlds of Silicon Valley and Washington DC, and what the government can do to better adopt new technology for national security.  Nand discusses the importance of software-defined warfare, the role tech plays in the intelligence community, and why the US needs more technologists in government. This episode is hosted by Jeff Phaneuf and Kyle Kennedy.   Full Bio:  Nand Mulchandani joined the CIA as Chief Technology Officer in June 2022. In this role, he focuses on driving CIA's efforts in leveraging cutting-edge and future innovations to further CIA's mission. He previously served as the Chief Technology Officer and Acting Director of the U.S. Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). Prior to that, he spent 25+ years in the technology industry as a serial entrepreneur and senior executive in the enterprise infrastructure and security software industry as co- founder & CEO of Oblix (acquired by Oracle), Determina (acquired by VMware), OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco), and ScaleXtreme (acquired by Citrix), and as an EIR at the venture capital firm Accel Partners. Mulchandani holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Cornell University, a Master of Science in Management from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and a Master of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Emmanuel, Guillaume et Arnaud discutent des nouvelles de l'été. JEPs, transactional outbox pattern avec Spring, LLM dans Chrome, faille polyfill.io, TOTP, congés illimités et IDE payant ou pas payant ? Enregistré le 12 juillet 2024 Téléchargement de l'épisode LesCastCodeurs-Episode-314.mp3 News Langages Les fonctionnalités de JDK 23 ont été figées début Juin (release prévue en septembre) https://openjdk.org/projects/jdk/23/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzjGp7LmW0I JEPs finales: 467: Markdown Documentation Comments 471: Deprecate the Memory-Access Methods in sun.misc.Unsafe for Removal 474: ZGC: Generational Mode by Default JEPs en incubation / preview 455: Primitive Types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch (Preview) 466: Class-File API (Second Preview) 469: Vector API (Eighth Incubator) 473: Stream Gatherers (Second Preview) 476: Module Import Declarations (Preview) 477: Implicitly Declared Classes and Instance Main Methods (Third Preview) 480: Structured Concurrency (Third Preview) 481: Scoped Values (Third Preview) 482: Flexible Constructor Bodies (Second Preview) Librairies Le transactional outbox pattern avec Spring Boot https://www.wimdeblauwe.com/blog/2024/06/25/transactional-outbox-pattern-with-spring-boot/ transactional outbox permet d'éviter des 2PC ou des désynchronisations de resources: typiquement un commit dans une base et un envoie de message dans un bus on ecrit le message dans une table de la base de données, et un process séparé récupère les messages et les envoient dans le bus implémentation utilise Spring Integration dans l'article, la seconde resource est l'envoie d'email montre une approche de tests le flow descrit pas psring integration est pas super trivial a lire quand on est pas familier mais cela poll la table toutes les secondes et envoie email et si succes de l'appel de service, vide le message de la table Deuxieme exemple avec Spring modulith qui a un event bus interne qui peut être persisté décrit les differences avec spring integration et les limites de l'approche modulith (message order, retry etc) Comment tester des valeurs de propriétés différentes dans un test Quarkus https://quarkus.io/blog/overriding-configuration-from-test-code/ on a tendance a ne pas tester les propriétés de config ce blog montre 5 (enfin 4 utiles) façons de le faire avec Quarkus. les profils de test, mocker l'objet de config, les test components (experimental), l'injection dans les constructeurs Quarkus 3.12 https://quarkus.io/blog/quarkus-3-12-0-released/ centralisation des configs TLS support pour le load shedding (reject requests on service overload) événements JFR specific a Quarkus native image agent support Spring Boot 3 (compat layer) Support Kotlin 2 etc Cloud On vous parlait dans un épisode précédent de ce problème de coûts S3 sur des requêtes non autorisées. C'est Graphana Loki qui a mis ce problème sous les projecteurs https://grafana.com/blog/2024/06/27/grafana-security-update-grafana-loki-and-unintended-data-write-attempts-to-amazon-s3-buckets/ le problème venait des valeurs par défaut des buckets déclarés dans le chart helm de Loki, en particulier celui nommé ‘chunks' Data et Intelligence Artificielle Guillaume avait partagé l'information sur la disponibilité prochaine d'un mini modele LLM dans chrome. C'est maintenant une réalité et vous pouvez le tester. https://ai-sdk-chrome-ai.vercel.app/ Nécessite Chrome 127 (version stable à partir de mi-juillet) Utilise le SDK Vercel AI Guillaume nous parle de toutes les nouveautés liées au modèle Gemini de Google dans la dernière release de LangChain4j https://glaforge.dev/posts/2024/07/05/latest-gemini-features-support-in-langchain4j/ Outillage 1% des utilisateurs de Maven Central utilisent 83% de sa bande passante. Installez un repository manager qui fait proxy (et cela pour tous les types de dépendances)!!! https://www.sonatype.com/blog/maven-central-and-the-tragedy-of-the-commons rien n'est réellement gratuit et l'abus d'une minorité peut nuire à l'ensemble. Cela fait maintenant plus de 20 ans que les communautés le répète: installer un gestionnaire de dépendances dans votre infrastructure (nexus, artifactory, CodeArtifact, …). En plus de protéger le bien commun cela vous permet de raffiner le filtrage des dépendances, d'assurer la reproductibilité de vos builds, d'optimiser les performances (et réduire les coûts) en ne téléchargeant que depuis votre propre infrastructure, etc … Maven Central est un commun qui ne coute rien à l'utilisteur mais qui est indispensable à tous 1000 milliards de téléchargements l'année dernière 83% de la bande passante consommé par 1% des IPs Beaucoup des ces IP viennent des companies les plus larges proxy pour réduire charge sur central, réduire couts ingress/egress ils vont implementer un mécanisme de throttling question est-ce que la concentration des IPs veut juste dire que c'est le dernier noeud mais que cacher n'est pas effectif pour eux et qu'il y a des milliers de clients derrière une IP? le trotting ferait mal et le proxy ne marche plus dans un monde ou le dev est dans le cloud et distribue géographiquement Comment mettre en place backstage, ici avec un projet Spring Boot utilisant CircleCi, Renovate, SonarCloud… https://piotrminkowski.com/2024/06/13/getting-started-with-backstage/ Cet article explique comment utiliser backstage pour fournir à vos équipes un template d'une application spring-boot. Elle est automatiquement crée sous forme d'un repository git(hub) avec les integrations classiques pour gérer la CI (via CircleCI), la qualité (via SonarCloud), la mise à jour de dépendances (via Renovate) et bien sur son référencement sur le portail backstage. tutoriel tres complet tres facilement remplacable pour un project avec votre technologie preferee (pas specifique a Spring Boot, ou Java) Architecture Que se passe t'il quand vous faites un push sur GitHub? https://github.blog/2024-06-11-how-we-improved-push-processing-on-github/ GitHub explique comment ils ont amélioré leur architecture, notamment en mettant en place Kafka pour distribuer les actions qui découlent d'un push sur GitHub. paralelisation des taches (avant sequentiel) limitation des dependances entre etapes effectuées lors d'un push plus de taches peuvent faire un retry un classique de decoupling via un EDA Sécurité Attaque du CDN polyfill.io https://sansec.io/research/polyfill-supply-chain-attack polyfill c'est un support de nouvelles fonctionalites dans les ancien navigateurs servi par cdn notamment une societe chinoise a achete le domaine et le github et injecte du malware qui pointe sur des serveurs qui servent le malware selectivement (device, admin ou pas, heure de la journée) Fastly et Cloudflare on des deploiements alternatiuve Une faille de sécurité, de type Remote Code Execution, vieille de 10ans, dans CocoaPods, un gestionnaire de dépendances très utilisé dans le monde Apple (macOS et iOS) https://securityboulevard.com/2024/07/cocoapods-apple-vulns-richixbw/ https://cocoapods.org/ / https://cocoapods.org/ est un gestionnaire de dépendances pour les projets Xcode. Les dependances (Pods) sont publiées sous forme de Specs qui sont référencées dans un Specs Repo (une sorte de Maven central mais seulement avec des metadonnées) CVE-2024-38366 est une vulnérabilité de type remote code execution avec un score CVSS de 10 La faille existait depuis 10 ans et a été corrigée en Sept 2023. Elle permettait d'avoir un accès root sur trunk.cocoapods.org qui stock les Specs. Elles auraient donc pu être modifiées sans que les auteurs ne s'en apperçoivent. Pas de preuve pour l'instant que la faille ait été exploitée Mieux comprendre la double authentification avec TOTP https://hendrik-erz.de/post/understanding-totp-two-factor-authentication-eli5 Cet article revient sur le fonctionnement de TOTP et comment l'implementer avec des exemples en python the QR code est une URL qui contient: le secret en base 32. le nom du totp, qui a fournit le TOTP, combien de chiffres et la durée de vie du TOTP pour generer les chiffres, prends le secret, le temps et hash le tout, prendre 4 bytes et les convertir le chiffres typiquement le serveur genere les deux d'avant, les deux d'apres et le courant pour comparer Loi, société et organisation L'équipe Apache Maven gagne le troisième prix BlueHats https://nlnet.nl/bluehatsprize/2024/3.html le projet remporte un gain de 10000€. Ce prix est organisé par le gouvernement français afin de récompenser les projets open sources les plus impactants. La clause de congés illimités en Europe https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/why-your-unlimited-vacation-policy-may-be-of-limited-use-in-europe Les politiques de congés illimités, populaires aux États-Unis, ne sont pas aussi avantageuses en Europe. En Europe, les employeurs doivent suivre les congés pris pour respecter les minima légaux de quatre semaines par an donc ils ne peuvent pas economiser sur le faire de ne plus les gérer. Les congés illimités permettent aux US de ne plus à devoir les payer au départ de l'employé. En Europe les employeurs doivent payer les congés non utilisés lors de la fin du contrat. Les employés européens pourraient prendre davantage de congés, car ils sont mieux protégés contre le licenciement. Les jours de maladie sont plus cadrés en europe. Un employé qui souffre d'une maladie longue pourrait utiliser les congés illimités mais ce ne sont pas les même règles qui s'appliquent OpenDNS n'est plus disponible en France et au Portugal https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/articles/27951404269204-OpenDNS-Service-Not-Available-To-Users-In-France-and-Portugal A priori Cisco qui opère openDNS en a marre des demandes de restrictions spécifiques à nos pays et préfère donc retirer entièrement l'accès au service plutôt que de se conformer à la nième demande de restrictions qui faisait suite à la plainte du groupe Canal+ portant sur l'accès à des sites illicites de streaming pour du sport Ask Me Anything Salut ! Êtes-vous plutôt IDE payants (ex : IJ Ultimate, ou des plugins payants), ou ne jurez-vous que par des outils gratuits ? Un peu des deux ? Si adaptes du payant, ça ne vous déprime pas qu'un nombre considérable d'employeurs rechignent à nous payer nos outils ? Que “de toute façon VSCode c'est gratuit” (à prononcer avec une voix méprisante) ? Quid du confort, ou de la productivité et/ou qualité accrue quand on maîtrise de tels outils ? Merci ! Conférences La liste des conférences provenant de Developers Conferences Agenda/List par Aurélie Vache et contributeurs : 6 septembre 2024 : JUG Summer Camp - La Rochelle (France) 6-7 septembre 2024 : Agile Pays Basque - Bidart (France) 17 septembre 2024 : We Love Speed - Nantes (France) 17-18 septembre 2024 : Agile en Seine 2024 - Issy-les-Moulineaux (France) 19-20 septembre 2024 : API Platform Conference - Lille (France) & Online 25-26 septembre 2024 : PyData Paris - Paris (France) 26 septembre 2024 : Agile Tour Sophia-Antipolis 2024 - Biot (France) 2-4 octobre 2024 : Devoxx Morocco - Marrakech (Morocco) 7-11 octobre 2024 : Devoxx Belgium - Antwerp (Belgium) 8 octobre 2024 : Red Hat Summit: Connect 2024 - Paris (France) 10 octobre 2024 : Cloud Nord - Lille (France) 10-11 octobre 2024 : Volcamp - Clermont-Ferrand (France) 10-11 octobre 2024 : Forum PHP - Marne-la-Vallée (France) 11-12 octobre 2024 : SecSea2k24 - La Ciotat (France) 16 octobre 2024 : DotPy - Paris (France) 16-17 octobre 2024 : NoCode Summit 2024 - Paris (France) 17-18 octobre 2024 : DevFest Nantes - Nantes (France) 17-18 octobre 2024 : DotAI - Paris (France) 30-31 octobre 2024 : Agile Tour Nantais 2024 - Nantes (France) 30-31 octobre 2024 : Agile Tour Bordeaux 2024 - Bordeaux (France) 31 octobre 2024-3 novembre 2024 : PyCon.FR - Strasbourg (France) 6 novembre 2024 : Master Dev De France - Paris (France) 7 novembre 2024 : DevFest Toulouse - Toulouse (France) 8 novembre 2024 : BDX I/O - Bordeaux (France) 13-14 novembre 2024 : Agile Tour Rennes 2024 - Rennes (France) 20-22 novembre 2024 : Agile Grenoble 2024 - Grenoble (France) 21 novembre 2024 : DevFest Strasbourg - Strasbourg (France) 21 novembre 2024 : Codeurs en Seine - Rouen (France) 27-28 novembre 2024 : Cloud Expo Europe - Paris (France) 28 novembre 2024 : Who Run The Tech ? - Rennes (France) 3-5 décembre 2024 : APIdays Paris - Paris (France) 4-5 décembre 2024 : DevOpsRex - Paris (France) 4-5 décembre 2024 : Open Source Experience - Paris (France) 6 décembre 2024 : DevFest Dijon - Dijon (France) 22-25 janvier 2025 : SnowCamp 2025 - Grenoble (France) 16-18 avril 2025 : Devoxx France - Paris (France) Nous contacter Pour réagir à cet épisode, venez discuter sur le groupe Google https://groups.google.com/group/lescastcodeurs Contactez-nous via twitter https://twitter.com/lescastcodeurs Faire un crowdcast ou une crowdquestion Soutenez Les Cast Codeurs sur Patreon https://www.patreon.com/LesCastCodeurs Tous les épisodes et toutes les infos sur https://lescastcodeurs.com/

Episode 454 avec Xavier et Sébastien B..La revue de presse :• D comme Débit (02:10) : Bande passante : le Japon établit un nouveau record. Record du monde et avec un transfert de données à 402 térabits par seconde. (Sources : 01net.com et nict.go.jp) • I comme IA (07:46) : L'IA, pour la fin du monde, mais à cause du CO2? L'IA fait exploser les émissions de CO2. (Source : lemonde.fr) • L comme LiFi (14:35) : La fusée Arianne 6 dit adieu au WiFi. La fusée Arianne 6 abandonne le WiFi et teste le LiFi. (Sources : next.ink et esa.int) • M comme Moshi (26:26:00) : L'IA conversationnelle française. Plus rapide que ChatGPT ? (Source : lesnumeriques.com) • O comme OpenDNS (35:51:00) : La France plonge les ampoules connectées dans le noir. Les ampoules Philips cassées en France? La faute à la justice face à OpenDNS. (Source : bfmtv.com) • S comme Santé (44:48:00) : Un objet connecté pour aider les personnes atteintes de Parkinson. Un objet connecté portable permet de réduire les effets de la maladie de Parkinson. (Sources : orange.com et youtu.be) • S comme Sony (49:32:00) : Sony sonne la fin des DVD-R et BD-R. Production arrêtée pour les DVD et BR réinscriptibles. (Source : frandroid.com) Retrouvez toutes nos informations, liens, versions du podcast via notre site : LesTechnos.be

Petite émission après un petit mois d'absence. On revient rapidement sur le Nintendo Direct qui pouvait faire plaisir à beaucoup de gens, Hanouna qui débarque d'un coup sur Europe 1, Meta qui se fait taper sur les doigts, et OpenDNS qui ne plie pas.

TechCraft, votre émission de divertissement Technologique & vidéo-ludique. Nos liens: Site TechCraft: www.techcraft.fr Live: http://live.techcraft.fr Flux rss: http://techcraft.podcloud.fr/rss E-Mail: podcast@techcraft.fr Twitter : @TechCraftPDC BlueSky : @techcraft.fr Discord: http://discord.techcraft.fr PodCloud : https://techcraft.lepodcast.fr/ News High-tech Quenton: OpenDNS Claque la porte_ Pof: Proton lance un équivalent à Google Doc Lien : https://www.01net.com/actualites/proton-lance-un-google-docs-gratuit-et-respectueux-de-la-vie-privee.html Quenton: Alerte Spotify Binzen: un tour d'horizon Pof: Blackmagic connu pour ses caméras et pour Davinci Resolve lancent une app pour Android mais que les Pixel et les Samsung Lien: https://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/blackmagic-camera-arrive-sur-android-pourquoi-cest-canon-sur-pixel-393599.htm Bigaston: L'espagne bloque le porno Lien: https://droit.developpez.com/actu/359879/L-Espagne-introduit-un-passeport-porno-pour-empecher-les-enfants-de-regarder-des-films-pornographiques-en-ligne-mais-le-systeme-suscite-des-preoccupations-en-matiere-de-protection-de-la-vie-privee/ Le coup de gueule de la semaine Bigaston: Paris, Ligne 14 et billets Lien: https://www.numerama.com/vroom/1769072-pourquoi-le-ticket-de-metro-pour-laeroport-dorly-est-il-difficile-a-acheter.html Les news en bref Binzen: Baldur's Gate influence D&D en retour Pof: Dawntrail, la nouvelle extension FFXIV CONCLUSION Site TechCraft: www.techcraft.fr E-Mail: podcast@techcraft.fr Twitter : @TechCraftPDC Discord: http://discord.techcraft.fr PodCloud : https://techcraft.lepodcast.fr/

Largest scams of 2023, Widget issue after an update, How do I check if I configured my OpenDNS correctly? Lock Screen Set-up for Widgets, NSA gives you advice on how to protect your smart phone. HP Laptop with Mail to New Outlook causing issues, Google Search Leak shedding doughs on value of SEO, Worried about security after a ransomware attack, Do I need a Microsoft Account with my new PC?

Ticket Master breach…great, Worlds largest Botnet master under arrest, DRM goes crazy on YouTube, External HD locks up when I move the data, Backup using Acronis, How do I use OpenDNS?  Why does OpenDNS break after an outage? So the US Treasury thinks NFTs are a fraud…ya don't say.

In today's episode, we dive into the sophisticated DNS activities of the China-linked threat actor known as Muddling Meerkat, who manipulates internet traffic and abuse DNS open resolvers. This cyber espionage endeavor has global implications as explained by Infoblox in an article at The Hacker News (https://thehackernews.com/2024/04/china-linked-muddling-meerkat-hijacks.html). Also, we discuss the FBI's warning about fake verification schemes targeting dating app users, uncovering the scam processes and providing tips to safeguard against such fraudulent activities as detailed in the BleepingComputer article (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-warns-of-fake-verification-schemes-targeting-dating-app-users/#google_vignette). Lastly, we explore Google's efforts to enhance mobile security by preventing over 2 million malicious apps from entering the Play Store, highlighting their proactive measures and collaborations to safeguard user privacy. Read more about this at The Hacker News (https://thehackernews.com/2024/04/google-prevented-228-million-malicious.html). 00:00 Introduction 02:36 Dating App Scams 04:12 Google's Security Enhancements 06:47 Muddling Meerkat's DNS Manipulation Generate single use credit card numbers: https://app.privacy.com/join/GL3U7 Tags: Muddling Meerkat, DNS activities, reconnaissance, China, fake verification schemes, dating app users, FBI warning, fraudsters, Google, Play Store, security, review process Search Phrases: Muddling Meerkat DNS activities China Muddling Meerkat reconnaissance Fake verification schemes dating apps FBI warning fraudsters Protect from fake verification schemes Unauthorized credit card charges prevention Google Play Store security measures Prevent sensitive data access Google app review process Infiltration prevention in Play Store Apr30 The FBI is warning that dating app users are being targeted by fake verification scams that are leading to costly recurring subscription charges, as well as theft and misuse of personal information. How can users protect themselves while using dating apps? Google blocked over 2 million policy violating apps from the Play Store in 2023. In a proactive security measure that also saw over 790,000 apps guarded against sensitive data access. How has Google improved its security features and review process to prevent these malicious apps from infiltrating the Play Store? And finally, a China linked threat named Muddling Meerkat has been caught manipulating DNS activities globally to evade security measures. They've been conducting reconnaissance since 2019. What are these unique DNS activities that Muddling Meerkat are undertaking, and what is their end goal? You're listening to The Daily Decrypt. So the FBI is warning of a new scam that's targeting dating app users, which can lead to fraudulent recurring subscription charges and even identity theft. So basically, the scammers will develop a romantic connection with you on the dating app of your choice, whether that's Tinder or Bumble or Hinge or whatever you choose, then they're going to ask to move this conversation to a safer platform to verify that you are in fact a human. Well, we're all on dating apps to try to find someone, so of course I'm going to verify that I'm human. It's a valid request. Well, the only way to verify that you're human now is to provide a credit card number and some information. Can't do anything without that. And that's where they're going to get you. This is going to lead to maybe small, maybe large, but seemingly anonymous charges on your credit card bill. And if you're not paying close attention to that, you might miss them. So this attack, at its core, is not very complex, but it is remarkably effective, because remember, there are a few different situations that we put ourselves in where we're a little more desperate and a little less careful. than we normally are. For example, dating apps. You're really on there to look for connection. Also when you're applying for a job, you're pretty desperate for a job. And sometimes when you need groceries or when you're hungry and you need DoorDash, you might be a little more susceptible to this type of attack. It's no secret what everyone's looking for on a dating app. It's all pretty similar. And so it might not be that hard to convince. Someone that they're having a genuine romantic connection. So, the FBI has some advice. They advise you not to open any attachments from anybody. And to keep the conversations on the dating platform. As well as reporting any suspicious profiles. Now, an additional tip from the Daily Decrypt, I myself just signed up the other day for a service called privacy. com that is a free service at its core creates new credit card numbers for you to use with different services. So when you sign up for Netflix, this site will create a credit card number for you. You can set a spending limit on it and You can cancel it at any time. So if you're signing up Netflix and thats for 20 dollars a month, you limit that card to $20 a month. Now, if Netflix decides they want to upcharge you, it won't go through. You're good to go. And so in the case of this specific attack, if you were to give them one of these generated credit card numbers and you set the limit for 1, which is what it usually costs to verify your ID, even though you'll get it returned, And say, no recurring charges allowed. the attacker will have this dummy credit card number and won't be able to get anything out of you. I'd highly recommend using this for any subscription. It makes the process of canceling so much easier. And especially with the boom in subscription services, like, everything has a subscription, so Some of them might be less secure than others. And if for some reason that site is breached, they get the credit card numbers. They're only gonna have this dummy credit card. And you've already set limits on it, so Attackers who come into ownership of this credit card number can't make extra purchases besides the subscription charges you've allocated. Google has revealed that in 2023 they prevented 2. 28 million policy violating apps from being published on the Play Store by leveraging new security features, policy updates, and advanced machine learning processes. So that's a lot of apps. Apple Store is known for having pretty stringent requirements for apps, even though in recent news they've had some pretty big slip ups with LastPass. Imitation app that was harvesting all the credentials stored in your LastPass account, all the way down to fake crypto apps that will take your credentials for your crypto and drain your accounts. But this is a big deal because of how easy it is for fraudulent apps to take over your entire life. Like those examples I just mentioned, if you happen to download a fake banking app for Bank of America, it Then the attackers would have your credentials to log into your Bank of America account. And I haven't been on the Google Play Store in a while, but I'm sure you can buy ad space there, and you know how we feel about Google Ads on this podcast. Don't click them. But it is very easy to spend 30 bucks and get any website up to the top of your Google search results. So just stay away from Google ads and any ads you may see on the app store. And you'll seriously reduce the likelihood of clicking a bad link or downloading a bad app. But Google has blocked 333, 000 bad accounts in 2023 from attempting to distribute malware or violating policies on the Play Store. Google has partnered with SDK providers to restrict sensitive data access and sharing, as well as strengthen developer onboarding and review processes, mandating additional identity verification steps to prevent bad actors from exploiting the system to propagate malicious apps. Google's efforts to secure the Android ecosystem include real time scanning at the code level to combat new Android malware threats and the introduction of independent security review badge for VPN apps that have undergone a mobile application security assessment. So I know some of you out there are Apple haters, but I have no intention of ever switching away from Apple. Mostly because, up until this point, they seem to be the provider that cares about app security. Whether or not that's true, I don't know, but that's how it appears. But this step from Google is one in the right direction towards winning over Apple fanboys like myself. So keep up the good work Google, and hey, who knows, maybe I'll switch back. So, recently, a new cyber threat named Muddling Meerkat has been identified conducting sophisticated DNS activities globally since October 2019. And this specific threat is likely linked to China and is capable of manipulating, quote, the Great Firewall. So how does it work? Muddling Meerkat exploits OpenDNS resolvers to send queries from Chinese IP spaces demonstrating a high level of DNS expertise uncommon amongst most threat actors. The threat actor triggers DNS queries for various record types to domains not owned by them under popular top level domains like com and org, using fake DNS MX records to probe the target domain. Infoblox detected over 20 domains targeted by muddling meerkat. Receiving anomalous DNS MX record requests from customer devices, indicating a unique and unprecedented attack method. The purpose behind Muddling Meerkat's prolonged DNS operations remains unclear, but is suggesting potential motives such as internet mapping or undisclosed research efforts. And a quote from Dr. Rene Burton, Vice President of Threat Intelligence for Infoblox, Muddling Meerkat elicits a special kind of fake DNS MX record from the Great Firewall, which has never been seen before. For this to happen, Muddling Meerkat must have a relationship with the Great Firewall operators. And for those of you like me who aren't unfamiliar with the Great Firewall, Just pulling up their Wikipedia page and reading from it, it says it's the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate the internet domestically. So it's a critical role in internet censorship in China. And be sure to check the show notes for this episode for the domains that you might see DNS MX records from, and other IOCs of this type of scanning. I'm anticipating there to be more news to come on this topic. This has been the Daily Decrypt. If you found your key to unlocking the digital domain, show your support with a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It truly helps us stand at the frontier of cyber news. Don't forget to connect on Instagram or catch our episodes on YouTube. Until next time, keep your data safe and your curiosity alive.

In 2017, the outdoor space surrounding Allison Messner's home in Northern California was destroyed by a devastating wildfire. In the aftermath, Allison and her husband decided to hire a landscape designer to help them rebuild their green space, but they quickly realized how difficult, long, and expensive the process was going to be. The two began developing an idea to make the process more efficient and accessible by incorporating new technology, and in 2018, they launched Yardzen, a digital landscape design and build platform. Today, the company operates in all 50 states with a network of hundreds of designers and architects. But before Allison disrupted the landscape industry, she reported as a journalist in Alaska, worked at a prestigious PR firm, was CMO of the tech company OpenDNS when it was acquired by Cisco for $635 million, and even started her own venture capital firm. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host Karl caught up with Dima Kumets, Principal Product Manager at Huntress Labs focused on their Security Awareness Training product. It was an entertaining interview! This interview focuses on the Security Awareness Training product, which features a truly engaging way for end users to learn about phishing attacks and other threats that arrive through email. Karl and Dima introduce you do the archvillain Didi and her role in educating clients - without irritating or alienating them! About Dima Kumets: Prior to joining Huntress, Dima was the product lead on OpenDNS (acquired by Cisco and now Cisco Umbrella.) He leverages his 20+ years of experience in technology to help partners grow their security practices and better protect the small and medium size businesses we all rely on. Partners can learn more at https://huntress.com/karl to sign up for a free trial. And, MSPs can sign up for the "Neighborhood watch" program that gives you free internal use licenses for all products. Thanks to Huntress for sponsoring this podcast.  --- Our upcoming events and more: Register for James's upcoming class at ITSPU! 5W22 – MSP Professional Sales starts April 23rd. Sign up now: https://www.itspu.com/all-classes/classes/msp-professional-sales-program/ MASTERMIND LIVE – Tampa, FL – April 27-28th http://bit.ly/kernanmastermind  Use “EARLYBIRD” as the coupon code to save $200! Catch James at the SMBTechfest! SMBTechfest – Irvince, CA – May 9-10th   https://www.smbtechfest.com/index.asp Check out Amy's weekly newsletter!  Sign up now : https://mailchi.mp/thirdtier/small-business-tech-news Our Social Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-kernan-varcoach/ https://www.facebook.com/james.kernan https://www.facebook.com/karlpalachuk/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlpalachuk/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/amybabinchak/ https://www.facebook.com/amy.babinchak/ https://thirdtier.net https://www.youtube.com/@ThirdTierIT   Sponsor Memo: Huntress Today's SMB Community Podcast is brought to you by Huntress Managed Security. Cybersecurity is more than software—it's also the expertise needed to effectively fight against today's evolving threat landscape. Huntress Managed Security is custom-built to provide human expertise and save your clients from cyber threats. Huntress' suite of fully managed cybersecurity solutions is powered by a 24/7, human-led SOC dedicated to around-the-clock monitoring, expert investigation, and rapid response. While you focus on growing your business, we provide first response to hackers. Huntress has the #1 rated EDR for SMBs on G2 and a partner support Satisfaction score average of 99%. To start a trial today, visit https://huntress.com/karl

Evolution Equity Partners today announced the final closing of Evolution Technology Fund III, LP and total capital commitments of $ 1.1 Billion to back visionary entrepreneurs building next generation cybersecurity companies that safeguard the digital world. The fund raise was oversubscribed by existing and new limited partners representing a diversified mix of leading institutions, sovereign investors, insurance companies, endowments, foundations, fund of funds, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. The capital committed gives Evolution Equity Partners a dedicated pool of capital to pursue opportunities for investment ranging from $20 million to $150 million in cybersecurity and in companies utilizing machine learning and AI to build market leading platforms. Significant investments made to date by Evolution include SecurityScorecard, Arctic Wolf, Protect AI, Talon Cyber, Torq, Snyk, Sweet Security, Aqua Security, Oleria, Halcyon, Cybsafe, Phosphorus, DefinedAI, Carbon Black, Panaseer, AVG Technologies, OpenDNS, Pentera, and Quantexa amongst 60 portfolio companies the firm has backed. Read the Press Release: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/evolution-equity-partners-closes-on-1-1-billion-for-cybersecurity-investment-in-oversubscribed-fund-raise-302117459.html

Apple DOJ Antitrust, Apple OS Update breaks 5 aspects of Apple Software, Hardware Vulnerability in Apple, Windows New Outlook broke my wife's email, Minecraft update will delete your worlds! Got Scammed and yelled at by the scammer, OpenDNS, Encrypted E-Mail how to stay secure,   Truck-to-Truck Worm could disrupt fleet!

This week we're talking about DNS with Paul Vixie — Paul is well known for his contributions to DNS and agrees with Adam on having a “love/hate relationship with DNS.” We discuss the limitations of current DNS technologies and the need for revisions to support future internet scale, the challenges in doing that. Paul shares insights on the future of the internet and how he'd reinvent DNS if given the opportunity. We even discuss the cultural idiom “It's always DNS,” and the shift to using DNS resolvers like OpenDNS, Google's 8.8.8.8 and Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1. Buckle up, this is a good one.

This week we're talking about DNS with Paul Vixie — Paul is well known for his contributions to DNS and agrees with Adam on having a “love/hate relationship with DNS.” We discuss the limitations of current DNS technologies and the need for revisions to support future internet scale, the challenges in doing that. Paul shares insights on the future of the internet and how he'd reinvent DNS if given the opportunity. We even discuss the cultural idiom “It's always DNS,” and the shift to using DNS resolvers like OpenDNS, Google's 8.8.8.8 and Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1. Buckle up, this is a good one.

Is your digital realm resembling a messy attic? Files overflowing like forgotten knick-knacks, an inbox resembling a confetti blizzard, and social media feeds choked with digital dust bunnies? Fear not, fellow data denizens, for spring cleaning season has arrived – and this year, we're reclaiming our online peace of mind! But unlike dusting cobwebs and decluttering drawers, taming our digital wilderness requires a different arsenal. Forget brooms and vacuum cleaners – we're talking AI-powered assistants, data-detective hounds, and even a digital shredder for those long-dormant devices whispered goodbye to. Here's your ultimate digital decluttering toolkit: Microsoft's Power Automate: Think of it as a tech-savvy Mary Poppins, whipping your digital cobwebs with automated file organization, email housekeeping, and seamless backups. Sip your coffee while Power Automate whisks away digital clutter like magic. Duplicate File Hunter: This data sleuth sniffs out file twins hogging precious storage space. Unleash the Hunter and watch gigabytes reappear like spring flowers, leaving your drives feeling light and breezy. Internet Defense Dome: Ditch the tin-foil hat – this digital bouncer, be it OpenDNS or similar shields, filters out online nasties like malware and phishing attempts before they even reach your virtual doorstep. Keep your online castle sparkling clean and data-safe from digital dragons. EV Battery Whisperer: Owning an electric wonder is awesome, but battery health takes some love. This app whispers sweet nothings to your EV, giving it a virtual checkup and ensuring smooth, efficient rides. Password Guardian: Passwords – the kryptonite of digital serenity! Google, your cyber therapist, analyzes your passwords, exposing vulnerabilities and suggesting upgrades. No more sticky notes – lock down your accounts with confidence, a fortress against digital villains. ChatGPT, the Inbox Concierge: Feeling buried in email avalanches? This AI assistant sorts the deluge, prioritizes messages, and even crafts responses. Think of it as a digital butler keeping your inbox zen and your mind focused. These are just a few of the digital decluttering superpowers at your fingertips. So, say goodbye to the digital dust bunnies, embrace the power of tech, and click here to uncover more tools for building a clutter-free online oasis! Remember, a tidy digital world is a productive, peaceful one. So grab your virtual dustpan and broom, roll up your sleeves, and prepare to be amazed by the transformative power of a digital spring clean! You can also catch Craig at the following stations and channels: With Jim Polito at 0836 on Tuesdays WTAG AM 580 - FM 94.9  Talk 1200 News Radio 920 & 104.7 FM WHJJ NewsRadio 560 WHYN WXTK Craigs Show Airs 0600 Saturday and Sunday With  Jeff Katz 1630 - Tuesdays WRVA 96.1 FM, 1140 AM   WGAN  Matt Gagnon 0730 Wednesdays Craigs Show Airs 1700 Saturday  WGIR 610 & News Radio 96.7 Chris Ryan 0730 Mondays  Craigs Show Airs 1130 Saturday  On the Internet: Tune-In (WGAN) Radio.com (WRVA) iHeartRadio (WGIR, WTAG, and other stations)

Richard is a Founder and Managing Partner at Evolution Equity Partners and is responsible for all aspects of the firm's global activities and strategic direction.  He leads investments in cybersecurity, enterprise software and data analytics and brings over three decades of investment, operational and entrepreneurial experience to his role. He is an investor and board member in category-defining software companies like AVG Technologies, OpenDNS, Cognitive Security, Carbon Black, Security Scorecard, Onapsis, LogPoint, DFLabs, Fortscale and Panaseer. In this episode we talk about: - How Richard started investing in cybersecurity? - How big is the cybersecurity market? - What are the sub categories within cyber security? - Importance of cybersecurity with AI becoming stronger - Possibility of Cyber wars - Common mistakes made by cybersecurity founders & lots more Links: Website - https://evolutionequity.com/ Follow Richard on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardseewald Follow Richard on X - https://x.com/Rseewald Hosted by Prashant Choubey LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/choubeysahab X - https://x.com/ChoubeySahab Subscribe to VC10X for more insightful episodes!

OpenDNS issues, Turns out we helped someone!, How do I secure my stuff?  E Vehicle update bricked the Radio! My camera creates LARGE pictures, how do I send them? How do I delete my email account? Do I need both OpenNDS and a VPN?

Hey savvy shoppers, gather 'round for a tale as vital as your grandma's pie recipe! Ever felt the sting of an online shopping scam? Fear not, I've got the lowdown on dodging those traps. Let's kick things off with a cautionary yarn and dive into the nitty-gritty. Spotting a Phony Website: Detective hat on! Check URLs for weird symbols and misspellings. A padlock symbol next to the URL is a good sign. Evaluating Sellers on eBay and Etsy: eBay and Etsy, our online treasure troves! Check seller ratings, reviews, and authentic photos. Don't fall for smoke and mirrors. Buying Big Ticket Items: Eyeing a big purchase? Do a reverse image lookup to ensure authenticity. Fish out the real deal from the online sea of possibilities. Single-Use Credit Cards Magic: Enter the game-changer – single-use credit cards. Use 'em and toss 'em. Bye-bye worries about your main card falling into the wrong hands. Keeping Your Info Under Lock and Key: Think twice about the info you share online. Use imaginative details for security questions. Be as elusive as a dragon for that added layer of protection. Why These Steps Matter: Avoid the headache of untangling from online scams. It's easier to prevent than fix. The 1Password and OpenDNS Shield: Secure your passwords with 1Password and enlist OpenDNS or Cisco Umbrella for a virtual guarddog against ransomware. Remember, online shopping can be a breeze with a dash of caution. Keep those eyes peeled, use single-use credit cards, and guard your info like the last slice of Thanksgiving pie. Questions or stories to share? I'm all ears! Ready to master the art of safe online shopping? Get All the Facts Here You can also catch Craig at the following stations and channels: With Jim Polito at 0836 on Tuesdays WTAG AM 580 - FM 94.9  Talk 1200 News Radio 920 & 104.7 FM WHJJ NewsRadio 560 WHYN WXTK Craigs Show Airs 0600 Saturday and Sunday With  Jeff Katz 1630 - Tuesdays WRVA 96.1 FM, 1140 AM   WGAN  Matt Gagnon 0730 Wednesdays Craigs Show Airs 1700 Saturday  WGIR 610 & News Radio 96.7 Chris Ryan 0730 Mondays  Craigs Show Airs 1130 Saturday  On the Internet: Tune-In (WGAN) Radio.com (WRVA) iHeartRadio (WGIR, WTAG, and other stations)

In the dynamic landscape of cyber threats, there are two unsung heroes changing the game for small businesses worldwide. Enter Cisco's OpenDNS and Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, wielding a powerful weapon – a free-tier DNS filtering product!

CT Lottery App no longer works, My Chromebook Tabs are gone, My Bank app does not have 2FA what should I do? HO Insta-ink stops printer from working when you cancel insta-ink subscription, How do I configure OpenDNS on Frontier Fiber, How much should it cost to install a Firewall for my business? Windows Defender driver error issue Win 11, Adobe Acrobat Pro stopped working.

Every OS Sucks! How do I configure OpenDNS? Clip-grab not working under win 11 may be a DRM issue linked to the TPM in your PC, Wireless Home Internet?  Apple may remove Facetime and iMessage from UK if new backdoor law goes into effect,  OpenDNS, ChatGPT getting dumber!  

Mcafee pop-up issues, OpenDNS please use it!, Brave Browser, Accessibility Configurations in Win 10, Giant Payment company Ransomed for 2nd time this year!  How do I get data off old drives? Supporting charities, What internet service should I use? Reboot Vs Restart?

More Fiber issues user had a Bad Modem, How do I set-up OpenDNS?, How do I convert Win 11 from CD to USB? Trying to re-use old Office Suite on new PCs, Turn off the track-pad to stop mouse from jumping around, Router/Firewall what's the difference? Should I get rid of my $50 POTs line?  YES!! How do I backup a Cell phone to my PC?  

“What if this life were the paradise we were promised, and we're just squandering it?”-Naval RavikantBeing happy and rich are learnable skills, and our guest today, Eric Jorgenson, has learned from the very best. His compilation of wisdom and winning business strategies from legendary tech innovator Naval Ravikant took the internet by storm, and his unbelievably popular book, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, holds a prominent place on the bookshelves of rich and happy people all over the world.Even more impressively, though, he's brought these ideas and timeless insights back into the real world again to create the foundations of a legendary career for himself as well. Eric Jorgenson consistently proves the truth and value of this wisdom via his own work and positive example. During our conversation, he holds nothing back and lets us inside two fascinating minds, both his and Naval's.In this episode, we cover:- What it's like working with Naval Ravikant- How to decide which book to read next- Why it's more effective to focus on your trajectory than your current results- Why everything is getting better all the time- Using leverage to get to the point where you're only doing what you want to do- The importance of honing in on your specific knowledge- Allowing your path to unfold organically as the fast track to genuine expertiseOne of the greatest lessons you'll learn in this episode, though, is that where you start off doesn't have to be where you end up. If there's a skill you lack, you can learn it; if there's a big scary problem looming over you, you can overcome it; if you want more out of life, you can have it. About Our Guest:Eric Jorgenson is an entrepreneur, writer, and investor. He is on the founding team of Zaarly, and has been publishing online since 2014. His blog has educated and entertained over a million readers.Naval Ravikant (not present) is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman, and former CEO of AngelList. He has invested early-stage in over 200 companies including Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Wish.com, Poshmark, Postmates, Thumbtack, Notion, SnapLogic, Opendoor, Clubhouse, Stack Overflow, Bolt, OpenDNS, Yammer, and Clearview AI, with over 70 total exits and more than 10 Unicorn companies. He is also a podcaster who shares advice on pursuing health, wealth, and happiness.Please leave a review if you enjoy The HighExistence podcast. You've gone Down The Rabbit Hole. Now it's time to walk up The Stairway to Wisdom.Introducing a brand new weekly newsletter from the minds at HighExistence.Over the past year, we've been publishing the wonder-inducing weekly email known as “Down The Rabbit Hole,” and now we're taking it a step further.We want our readers not only to feel a deep sense of enchantment towards the world around them but also to apply deep teachings to their daily life so they can experience the life-transforming benefits of wisdom-in-action.The Stairway to Wisdom is a premium weekly newsletter for those who are ready to dive deeper. We've partnered with independent researcher and knowledge connoisseur, Matt Karamazov, who has taken sharp, meticulous notes on over 1000 books so that he could share the most inspiring pearls of wisdom with the world.Learn more here

Ayal Yogev is the co-founder and CEO of Anjuna Security. Ayal has 20 years of experience in the enterprise security market, serving most recently as VP of Product Management at SafeBreach. Prior to that, he led the Umbrella product management team at OpenDNS, which was acquired by Cisco in 2015 for $635M. Ayal has also held senior product management positions at Lookout and Imperva, and he was part of Imperva's IPO in 2011.Ayal holds an MBA with honors from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and a B.Sc. Summa Cum Laude in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Tel-Aviv University.Connect with Behind Company Lines and HireOtter Website Facebook Twitter LinkedIn:Behind Company LinesHireOtter Instagram Buzzsprout

How do you create rules for technology in your home? What? You don't?! You just let your kids do whatever they want with their cellphones, laptops, and tablets?You're kidding right? Of course you are...  On Episode 65 Jeff talks about how to create a "Rule of Technology" in your home. Tech is one of the most dangerous realities in most of our homes. The free flow of the world's media and messages should not go unchecked or unregulated in our kids' lives.Jeff gives you 8 ideas around creating guidelines for technology in your home, and with your kids. Enjoy! And, check out OPENDNS. It's a free filtering software you can set up on your homes WiFi Router so that you can filter the Internet straight at its source, and protect your kids and everyone else who taps into your WiFi.If you can't figure it out, invite your geek friend over to set it up for you. Totally FREE. #notasponsor :-)Support the show

My guest today is Halsey Minor, CEO of Vivid Labs. VIVID enables anyone to create, manage, and sell multimedia NFTs, enabling new use cases and business models and evolving NFTs into complete media experiences. Compatible across all significant blockchains, VIVID offers advanced NFT + features that transform simple NFTs into rich media experiences that are multi-format, multi-asset, permissioned, updateable and resilient. Halsey is a technology founder behind some of the greatest successes in internet and enterprise computing which have anticipated “what's next” in enterprise architecture and technology adoption. His companies have created over $250 billion in cumulative value, and he's built a Nasdaq 100 company from scratch. His achievements as founder or co-founder include CNET, Uphold, Salesforce, Google Voice, OpenDNS, and Vignette. We discuss various topics, including the future of NFTs, the evolution of the web, why NFTs are a new form of the website, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how NFTs are creating a new genre of multimedia content. Halsey discusses how NFTs will enhance the fan experience and provide content creators with new and innovative ways to connect with their audience. Halsey explains how various music artists and movie franchises are currently utilizing this technology to build a more profound fan experience for their audiences. Our next conversation topic centered around the evolution of the web. We discuss how Web3 is the natural evolution of the net. Halsey shares his experience building startups and business throughout the different web eras and what attracted him to Web3. We also discuss why NFTs are a new form of the website and the possible implications of that framing. We transitioned our conversation to discuss the importance of sensible regulation around NFTs. Halsey outlines why he has been imploring regulators to treat NFTs as content and not deem them to be securities. Another major conversation topic we discussed was the recent stablecoin news and why algorithmic stable coins are unlikely to work. Our final conversation centered around the future of NFTs and how creators and fans will benefit from the technology as we continue to push the boundaries of what we think is possible in space. Please enjoy my conversation with Halsey Minor. -- This podcast is powered by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at https://blockworks.co

Brett Arends from MarketWatch – Why I don't Crypto in my 401k, Apple will NOT let me reuse my 9 year old monitor on my new MAC computer, Security for cell phones, OpenDNS, Streaming device shutting down or is it my TV? How can I stop everything from tracking me?, Can I connect my TV to my PC?  

This week, we have a special crossover episode from June 2021: Joel Beasley, host of the Modern CTO podcast, interviews a16z general partner David Ulevitch about David's journey from working at an ISP and Dot Com company mp3.com in high school; to starting, running, and selling his own enterprise security company, OpenDNS; to becoming an investor at a16z. They also discuss the value of product marketing for enterprise, David's philosophy around pricing enterprise products how to survive and lead through hard times, new trends in startup investing, and more. This is part of our occasional series where we feature relevant episodes from like-minded shows on the a16z Podcast, to surface other shows you might be interested in. The Modern CTO podcast is by and for CTOs and other technical leaders at places like Microsoft, NASA, Reddit, Launch Darkly, and more, all sharing how to build strong companies and organizations. It's hosted by Joel Beasley, CTO of Leaderbits and author of the book, The Modern CTO. Check out more episodes of this show wherever you get your podcast. And for more on how to grow from a technical to product to Sales CEO, check out David's previous episode on this podcast called “What Time Is It”.

About ClintClint is the CEO and a co-founder at Cribl, a company focused on making observability viable for any organization, giving customers visibility and control over their data while maximizing value from existing tools.Prior to co-founding Cribl, Clint spent two decades leading product management and IT operations at technology and software companies, including Splunk and Cricket Communications. As a former practitioner, he has deep expertise in network issues, database administration, and security operations.Links: Cribl: https://cribl.io/ Cribl.io: https://cribl.io Docs.cribl.io: https://docs.cribl.io Sandbox.cribl.io: https://sandbox.cribl.io TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Today's episode is brought to you in part by our friends at MinIO the high-performance Kubernetes native object store that's built for the multi-cloud, creating a consistent data storage layer for your public cloud instances, your private cloud instances, and even your edge instances, depending upon what the heck you're defining those as, which depends probably on where you work. It's getting that unified is one of the greatest challenges facing developers and architects today. It requires S3 compatibility, enterprise-grade security and resiliency, the speed to run any workload, and the footprint to run anywhere, and that's exactly what MinIO offers. With superb read speeds in excess of 360 gigs and 100 megabyte binary that doesn't eat all the data you've gotten on the system, it's exactly what you've been looking for. Check it out today at min.io/download, and see for yourself. That's min.io/download, and be sure to tell them that I sent you.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at Sysdig. Sysdig is the solution for securing DevOps. They have a blog post that went up recently about how an insecure AWS Lambda function could be used as a pivot point to get access into your environment. They've also gone deep in-depth with a bunch of other approaches to how DevOps and security are inextricably linked. To learn more, visit sysdig.com and tell them I sent you. That's S-Y-S-D-I-G dot com. My thanks to them for their continued support of this ridiculous nonsense.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. I have a repeat guest joining me on this promoted episode. Clint Sharp is the CEO and co-founder of Cribl. Clint, thanks for joining me.Clint: Hey, Corey, nice to be back.Corey: I was super excited when you gave me the premise for this recording because you said you had some news to talk about, and I was really excited that oh, great, they're finally going to buy a vowel so that people look at their name and understand how to pronounce it. And no, that's nowhere near forward-looking enough. It's instead it's some, I guess, I don't know, some product announcement or something. But you know, hope springs eternal. What have you got for us today?Clint: Well, one of the reasons I love talking to your audiences because product announcements actually matter to this audience. It's super interesting, as you get into starting a company, you're such, like, a product person, you're like, “Oh, I have this new set of things that's really going to make your life better.” And then you go out to, like, the general media, and you're like, “Hey, I have this product.” And they're like, “I don't care. What product? Do you have a funding announcement? Do you have something big in the market that—you know, do you have a new executive? Do you”—it's like, “No, but, like, these features, like these things, that we—the way we make our lives better for our customers. Isn't that interesting?” “No.”Corey: Real depressing once you—“Do you have a security breach to announce?” It's, “No. God no. Why would I wind up being that excited about it?” “Well, I don't know. I'd be that excited about it.” And yeah, the stuff that mainstream media wants to write about in the context of tech companies is exactly the sort of thing that tech companies absolutely do not want to be written about for. But fortunately, that is neither here nor there.Clint: Yeah, they want the thing that gets the clicks.Corey: Exactly. You built a product that absolutely resonates in its target market and outside of that market. It's one of those, what is that thing, again? If you could give us a light refresher on what Cribl is and does, you'll probably do a better job of it than I will. We hope.Clint: We'd love to. Yeah, so we are an observability company, fundamentally. I think one of the interesting things to talk about when it comes to observability is that observability and security are merging. And so I like to say observability and include security people. If you're a security person, and you don't feel included by the word observability, sorry.We also include you; you're under our tent here. So, we sell to technology professionals, we help make their lives better. And we do that today through a flagship product called LogStream—which is part of this announcement, we're actually renaming to Stream. In some ways, we're dropping logs—and we are a pipeline company. So, we help you take all of your existing agents, all of your existing data that's moving, and we help you process that data in the stream to control costs and to send it multiple places.And it sounds kind of silly, but one of the biggest problems that we end up solving for a lot of our enterprises is, “Hey, I've got, like, this old Syslog feed coming off of my firewalls”—like, you remember those things, right? Palo Alto firewalls, ASA firewalls—“I actually get that thing to multiple places because, hey, I want to get that data into another security solution. I want to get that data into a data lake. How do I do that?” Well, in today's world, that actually turns out is sort of a neglected set of features, like, the vendors who provide you logging solutions, being able to reshape that data, filter that data, control costs, wasn't necessarily at the top of their priority list.It wasn't nefarious. It wasn't like people are like, “Oh, I'm going to make sure that they can't process this data before it comes into my solution.” It's more just, like, “I'll get around to it eventually.” And the eventually never actually comes. And so our streaming product helps people do that today.And the big announcement that we're making this week is that we're extending that same processing technology down to the endpoint with a new product we're calling Cribl Edge. And so we're taking our existing best-in-class management technology, and we're turning it into an agent. And that seems kind of interesting because… I think everybody sort of assumed that the agent is dead. Okay, well, we've been building agents for a decade or two decades. Isn't everything exactly the same as it was before?But we really saw kind of a dearth of innovation in that area in terms of being able to manage your agents, being able to understand what data is available to be collected, being able to auto-discover the data that needs to be able to be collected, turning those agents into interactive troubleshooting experiences so that we can, kind of, replicate the ability to zoom into a remote endpoint and replicate that Linux command line experience that we're not supposed to be getting anymore because we're not supposed to SSH into boxes anymore. Well, how do I replicate that? How do I see how much disk is on this given endpoint if I can't SSH into that box? And so Cribl Edge is a rethink about making this rich, interactive experience on top of all of these agents that become this really massive distributed system that we can process data all the way out at where the data is being emitted.And so that means that now we don't nec—if you want to process that data in the stream, okay, great, but if you want to process that data at its origination point, we can actually provide you cheaper cost because now you're using a lot of that capacity that's sitting out there on your endpoints that isn't really being used today anyway—the average utilization of a Kubernetes cluster is like 30%—Corey: It's that high. I'm sort of surprised.Clint: Right? I know. So, Datadog puts out the survey every year, which I think is really interesting, and that's a number that always surprised me is just that people are already paying for this capacity, right? It's sitting there, it's on their AWS bill already, and with that average utilization, a lot of the stuff that we're doing in other clusters, or while we're moving that data can actually just be done right there where the data is being emitted. And also, if we're doing things like filtering, we can lower egress charges, there's lots of really, really good goodness that we can do by pushing that processing further closer to its origination point.Corey: You know, the timing of this episode is somewhat apt because as of the time that we're recording this, I spent most of yesterday troubleshooting and fixing my home wireless network, which is a whole Ubiquity-managed thing. And the controller was one of their all-in-one box things that kept more or less power cycling for no apparent reason. How do I figure out why it's doing that? Well, I'm used to, these days, doing everything in a cloud environment where you can instrument things pretty easily, where things start and where things stop is well understood. Finally, I just gave up and used a controller that's sitting on an EC2 instance somewhere, and now great, now I can get useful telemetry out of it because now it's stuff I know how to deal with.It also, turns out that surprise, my EC2 instance is not magically restarting itself due to heat issues. What a concept. So, I have a newfound appreciation for the fact that oh, yeah, not everything lives in a cloud provider's regions. Who knew? This is a revelation that I think is going to be somewhat surprising for folks who've been building startups and believe that anything that's older than 18 months doesn't exist.But there's a lot of data centers out there, there are a lot of agents living all kinds of different places. And workloads continue to surprise me even now, just looking at my own client base. It's a very diverse world when we're talking about whether things are on-prem or whether they're in cloud environments.Clint: Well, also, there's a lot of agents on every endpoint period, just due to the fact that security guys want an agent, the observability guys want an agent, the logging people want an agent. And then suddenly, I'm, you know, I'm looking at every endpoint—cloud, on-prem, whatever—and there's 8, 10 agents sitting there. And so I think a lot of the opportunity that we saw was, we can unify the data collection for metric type of data. So, we have some really cool defaults. [unintelligible 00:07:30] this is one of the things where I think people don't focus much on, kind of, the end-user experience. Like, let's have reasonable defaults.Let's have the thing turn on, and actually, most people's needs are set without tweaking any knobs or buttons, and no diving into YAML files and looking at documentation and trying to figure out exactly the way I need to configure this thing. Let's collect metric data, let's collect log data, let's do it all from one central place with one agent that can send that data to multiple places. And I can send it to Grafana Cloud, if I want to; I can send it to Logz.io, I can send it to Splunk, I can send it to Elasticsearch, I can send it to AWS's new Elasticsearch-y the thing that we don't know what they're going to call it yet after the lawsuit. Any of those can be done right from the endpoint from, like, a rich graphical experience where I think that there's a really a desire now for people to kind of jump into these configuration files where really a lot of these users, this is a part-time job, and so hey, if I need to go set up data collection, do I want to learn about this detailed YAML file configuration that I'm only going to do once or twice, or should I be able to do it in an easy, intuitive way, where I can just sit down in front of the product, get my job done and move on without having to go learn some sort of new configuration language?Corey: Once upon a time, I saw an early circa 2012, 2013 talk from Jordan Sissel, who is the creator of Logstash, and he talked a lot about how challenging it was to wind up parsing all of the variety of log files out there. Even something is relatively straightforward—wink, wink, nudge, nudge—as timestamps was an absolute monstrosity. And a lot of people have been talking in recent years about OpenTelemetry being the lingua franca that everything speaks so that is the wave of the future, but I've got a level with you, looking around, it feels like these people are living in a very different reality than the one that I appear to have stumbled into because the conversations people are having about how great it is sound amazing, but nothing that I'm looking at—granted from a very particular point of view—seems to be embracing it or supporting it. Is that just because I'm hanging out in the wrong places, or is it still a great idea whose time has yet to come, or something else?Clint: So, I think a couple things. One is every conversation I have about OpenTelemetry is always, “Will be.” It's always in the future. And there's certainly a lot of interest. We see this from customer after customer, they're very interested in OpenTelemetry and what the OpenTelemetry strategy is, but as an example OpenTelemetry logging is not yet finalized specification; they believe that they're still six months to a year out. It seems to be perpetually six months to a year out there.They are finalized for metrics and they are finalized for tracing. Where we see OpenTelemetry tends to be with companies like Honeycomb, companies like Datadog with their tracing product, or Lightstep. So, for tracing, we see OpenTelemetry adoption. But tracing adoption is also not that high either, relative to just general metrics of logs.Corey: Yeah, the tracing implementations that I've seen, for example, Epsagon did this super well, where it would take a look at your Lambdas Function built into an application, and ah, we're going to go ahead and instrument this automatically using layers or extensions for you. And life was good because suddenly you got very detailed breakdowns of exactly how data was flowing in the course of a transaction through 15 Lambdas Function. Great. With everything else I've seen, it's, “Oh, you have to instrument all these things by hand.” Let me shortcut that for you: That means no one's going to do it. They never are.It's anytime you have to do that undifferentiated heavy lifting of making sure that you put the finicky code just so into your application's logic, it's a shorthand for it's only going to happen when you have no other choice. And I think that trying to surface that burden to the developer, instead of building it into the platform so they don't have to think about it is inherently the wrong move.Clint: I think there's a strong belief in Silicon Valley that—similar to, like, Hollywood—that the biggest export Silicon Valley is going to have is culture. And so that's going to be this culture of, like, developer supporting their stuff in production. I'm telling you, I sell to banks and governments and telcos and I don't see that culture prevailing. I see a application developed by Accenture that's operated by Tata. That's a lot of inertia to overcome and a lot of regulation to overcome as well, and so, like, we can say that, hey, separation of duties isn't really a thing and developers should be able to support all their own stuff in production.I don't see that happening. It may happen. It'll certainly happen more than zero. And tracing is predicated on the whole idea that the developer is scratching their own itch. Like that I am in production and troubleshooting this and so I need this high-fidelity trace-level information to understand what's going on with this one user's experience, but that doesn't tend to be in the enterprise, how things are actually troubleshot.And so I think that more than anything is the headwind that slowing down distributed tracing adoption. It's because you're putting the onus on solving the problem on a developer who never ends up using the distributed tracing solution to begin with because there's another operations department over there that's actually operating the thing on a day-to-day basis.Corey: Having come from one of those operations departments myself, the way that I would always fix things was—you know, in the era that I was operating it made sense—you'd SSH into a box and kick the tires, poke around, see what's going on, look at the logs locally, look at the behaviors, the way you'd expect it to these days, that is considered a screamingly bad anti-pattern and it's something that companies try their damnedest to avoid doing at all. When did that change? And what is the replacement for that? Because every time I asked people for the sorts of data that I would get from that sort of exploration when they're trying to track something down, I'm more or less met with blank stares.Clint: Yeah. Well, I think that's a huge hole and one of the things that we're actually trying to do with our new product. And I think the… how do I replicate that Linux command line experience? So, for example, something as simple, like, we'd like to think that these nodes are all ephemeral, but there's still a disk, whether it's virtual or not; that thing sometimes fills up, so how do I even do the simple thing like df -kh and see how much disk is there if I don't already have all the metrics collected that I needed, or I need to go dive deep into an application and understand what that application is doing or seeing, what files it's opening, or what log files it's writing even?Let's give some good examples. Like, how do I even know what files an application is running? Actually, all that information is all there; we can go discover that. And so some of the things that we're doing with Edge is trying to make this rich, interactive experience where you can actually teleport into the end node and see all the processes that are running and get a view that looks like top and be able to see how much disk is there and how much disk is being consumed. And really kind of replicating that whole troubleshooting experience that we used to get from the Linux command line, but now instead, it's a tightly controlled experience where you're not actually getting an arbitrary shell, where I could do anything that could give me root level access, or exploit holes in various pieces of software, but really trying to replicate getting you that high fidelity information because you don't need any of that information until you need it.And I think that's part of the problem that's hard with shipping all this data to some centralized platform and getting every metric and every log and moving all that data is the data is worthless until it isn't worthless anymore. And so why do we even move it? Why don't we provide a better experience for getting at the data at the time that we need to be able to get at the data. Or the other thing that we get to change fundamentally is if we have the edge available to us, we have way more capacity. I can store a lot of information in a few kilobytes of RAM on every node, but if I bring thousands of nodes into one central place, now I need a massive amount of RAM and a massive amount of cardinality when really what I need is the ability to actually go interrogate what's running out there.Corey: The thing that frustrates me the most is the way that I go back and find my old debug statements, which is, you know, I print out whatever it is that the current status is and so I can figure out where something's breaking.Clint: [Got here 00:15:08].Corey: Yeah. I do it within AWS Lambda functions, and that's great. And I go back and I remove them later when I notice how expensive CloudWatch logs are getting because at 50 cents per gigabyte of ingest on those things, and you have that Lambda function firing off a fair bit, that starts to add up when you've been excessively wordy with your print statements. It sounds ridiculous, but okay, then you're storing it somewhere. If I want to take that log data and have something else consume it, that's nine cents a gigabyte to get it out of AWS and then you're going to want to move it again from wherever it is over there—potentially to a third system, because why not?—and it seems like the entire purpose of this log data is to sit there and be moved around because every time it gets moved, it winds up somehow costing me yet more money. Why do we do this?Clint: I mean, it's a great question because one of the things that I think we decided 15 years ago was that the reason to move this data was because that data may go poof. So, it was on a, you know, back in my day, it was an HP DL360 1U rackmount server that I threw in there, and it had raid zero discs and so if that thing went dead, well, we didn't care, we'd replace it with another one. But if we wanted to find out why it went dead, we wanted to make sure that the data had moved before the thing went dead. But now that DL360 is a VM.Corey: Yeah, or a container that is going to be gone in 20 minutes. So yeah, you don't want to store it locally on that container. But discs are also a fair bit more durable than they once were, as well. And S3 talks about its 11 nines of durability. That's great and all but most of my application logs don't need that. So, I'm still trying to figure out where we went wrong.Clint: Well, I think it was right for the time. And I think now that we have durable storage at the edge where that blob storage has already replicated three times and we can reattach—if that box crashes, we can reattach new compute to that same block storage. Actually, AWS has some cool features now, you can actually attach multiple VMs to the same block store. So, we could actually even have logs being written by one VM, but processed by another VM. And so there are new primitives available to us in the cloud, which we should be going back and re-questioning all of the things that we did ten to 15 years ago and all the practices that we had because they may not be relevant anymore, but we just never stopped to ask why.Corey: Yeah, multi-attach was rolled out with their IO2 volumes, which are spendy but great. And they do warn you that you need a file system that actively supports that and applications that are aware of it. But cool, they have specific use cases that they're clearly imagining this for. But ten years ago, we were building things out, and, “Ooh, EBS, how do I wind up attaching that from multiple instances?” The answer was, “Ohh, don't do that.”And that shaped all of our perspectives on these things. Now suddenly, you can. Is that, “Ohh don't do that,” gut visceral reaction still valid? People don't tend to go back and re-examine the why behind certain best practices until long after those best practices are now actively harmful.Clint: And that's really what we're trying to do is to say, hey, should we move log data anymore if it's at a durable place at the edge? Should we move metric data at all? Like, hey, we have these big TSDBs that have huge cardinality challenges, but if I just had all that information sitting in RAM at the original endpoint, I can store a lot of information and barely even touch the free RAM that's already sitting out there at that endpoint. So, how to get out that data? Like, how to make that a rich user experience so that we can query it?We have to build some software to do this, but we can start to question from first principles, hey, things are different now. Maybe we can actually revisit a lot of these architectural assumptions, drive cost down, give more capability than we actually had before for fundamentally cheaper. And that's kind of what Cribl does is we're looking at software is to say, “Man, like, let's question everything and let's go back to first principles.” “Why do we want this information?” “Well, I need to troubleshoot stuff.” “Okay, well, if I need to troubleshoot stuff, well, how do I do that?” “Well, today we move it, but do we have to? Do we have to move that data?” “No, we could probably give you an experience where you can dive right into that endpoint and get really, really high fidelity data without having to pay to move that and store it forever.” Because also, like, telemetry information, it's basically worthless after 24 hours, like, if I'm moving that and paying to store it, then now I'm paying for something I'm never going to read back.Corey: This episode is sponsored in part by our friends at Vultr. Spelled V-U-L-T-R because they're all about helping save money, including on things like, you know, vowels. So, what they do is they are a cloud provider that provides surprisingly high performance cloud compute at a price that—while sure they claim its better than AWS pricing—and when they say that they mean it is less money. Sure, I don't dispute that but what I find interesting is that it's predictable. They tell you in advance on a monthly basis what it's going to going to cost. They have a bunch of advanced networking features. They have nineteen global locations and scale things elastically. Not to be confused with openly, because apparently elastic and open can mean the same thing sometimes. They have had over a million users. Deployments take less that sixty seconds across twelve pre-selected operating systems. Or, if you're one of those nutters like me, you can bring your own ISO and install basically any operating system you want. Starting with pricing as low as $2.50 a month for Vultr cloud compute they have plans for developers and businesses of all sizes, except maybe Amazon, who stubbornly insists on having something to scale all on their own. Try Vultr today for free by visiting: vultr.com/screaming, and you'll receive a $100 in credit. Thats V-U-L-T-R.com slash screaming.Corey: And worse, you wind up figuring out, okay, I'm going to store all that data going back to 2012, and it's petabytes upon petabytes. And great, how do I actually search for a thing? Well, I have to use some other expensive thing of compute that's going to start diving through all of that because the way I set up my partitioning, it isn't aligned with anything looking at, like, recency or based upon time period, so right every time I want to look at what happened 20 minutes ago, I'm looking at what happened 20 years ago. And that just gets incredibly expensive, not just to maintain but to query and the rest. Now, to be clear, yes, this is an anti-pattern. It isn't how things should be set up. But how should they be set up? And it is the collective the answer to that right now actually what's best, or is it still harkening back to old patterns that no longer apply?Clint: Well, the future is here, it's just unevenly distributed. So there's, you know, I think an important point about us or how we think about building software is with this customer is first attitude and fundamentally bringing them choice. Because the reality is that doing things the old way may be the right decision for you. You may have compliance requirements to say—there's a lot of financial services institutions, for example, like, they have to keep every byte of data written on any endpoint for seven years. And so we have to accommodate their requirements.Like, is that the right requirement? Well, I don't know. The regulator wrote it that way, so therefore, I have to do it. Whether it's the right thing or the wrong thing for the business, I have no choice. And their decisions are just as right as the person who says this data is worthless and should all just be thrown away.We really want to be able to go and say, like, hey, what decision is right? We're going to give you the option to do it this way, we're going to give you the option to do it this way. Now, the hard part—and that when it comes down to, like, marketing, it's like you want to have this really simple message, like, “This is the one true path.” And a lot of vendors are this way, “There's this new wonderful, right, true path that we are going to take you on, and follow along behind me.” But the reality is, enterprise worlds are gritty and ugly, and they're full of old technology and new technology.And they need to be able to support getting data off the mainframe the same way as they're doing a brand new containerized microservices application. In fact, that brand new containerized microservices application is probably talking to the mainframe through some API. And so all of that has to work at once.Corey: Oh, yeah. And it's all of our payment data is in our PCI environment that PCI needs to have every byte logged. Great. Why is three-quarters of your infrastructure considered the PCI environment? Maybe you can constrain that at some point and suddenly save a whole bunch of effort, time, money, and regulatory drag on this.But as you go through that journey, you need to not only have a tool that will work when you get there but a tool that will work where you are today. And a lot of companies miss that mark, too. It's, “Oh, once you modernize and become the serverless success story of the decade, then our product is going to be right for you.” “Great. We'll send you a postcard if we ever get there and then you can follow up with us.”Alternately, it's well, “Yeah, we're this is how we are today, but we have a visions of a brighter tomorrow.” You've got to be able to meet people where they are at any point of that journey. One of the things I've always respected about Cribl has been the way that you very fluidly tell both sides of that story.Clint: And it's not their fault.Corey: Yeah.Clint: Most of the people who pick a job, they pick the job because, like—look, I live in Kansas City, Missouri, and there's this data processing company that works primarily on mainframes, it's right down the road. And they gave me a job and it pays me $150,000 a year, and I got a big house and things are great. And I'm a sysadmin sitting there. I don't get to play with the new technology. Like, that customer is just as an applicable customer, we want to help them exactly the same as the new Silicon Valley hip kid who's working at you know, a venture-backed startup, they're doing everything natively in the cloud. Those are all right decisions, depending on where you happen to find yourself, and we want to support you with our products, no matter where you find yourself on the technology spectrum.Corey: Speaking of old and new, and the trends of the industry, when you first set up this recording, you mentioned, “Oh, yeah, we should make it a point to maybe talk about the acquisition,” at which point I sprayed coffee across my iMac. Thanks for that. Turns out it wasn't your acquisition we were talking about so much as it is the—at the time we record this—-the yet-to-close rumored acquisition of Splunk by Cisco.Clint: I think it's both interesting and positive for some people, and sad for others. I think Cisco is obviously a phenomenal company. They run the networking world. The fact that they've been moving into observability—they bought companies like AppDynamics, and we were talking about Epsagon before the show, they bought—ServiceNow, just bought Lightstep recently. There's a lot of acquisitions in this space.I think that when it comes to something like Splunk, Splunk is a fast-growing company by compared to Cisco. And so for them, this is something that they think that they can put into their distribution channel, and what Cisco knows how to do is to sell things like they're very good at putting things through their existing sales force and really amplifying the sales of that particular thing that they have just acquired. That being said, I think for a company that was as innovative as Splunk, I do find it a bit sad with the idea that it's going to become part of this much larger behemoth and not really probably driving the observability and security industry forward anymore because I don't think anybody really looks at Cisco as a company that's driving things—not to slam them or anything, but I don't really see them as driving the industry forward.Corey: Somewhere along the way, they got stuck and I don't know how to reconcile that because they were a phenomenally fast-paced innovative company, briefly the most valuable company in the world during the dotcom bubble. And then they just sort of stalled out somewhere and, on some level, not to talk smack about it, but it feels like the level of innovation we've seen from Splunk has curtailed over the past half-decade or so. And selling to Cisco feels almost like a tacit admission that they are effectively out of ideas. And maybe that's unfair.Clint: I mean, we can look at the track record of what's been shipped over the last five years from Splunk. And again they're a partner, their customers are great, I think they still have the best log indexing engine on the market. That was their core product and what has made them the majority of their money. But there's not been a lot new. And I think objectively we can look at that without throwing stones and say like, “Well, what net-new? You bought SignalFX. Like, good for you guys like that seems to be going well. You've launched your observability suite based off of these acquisitions.” But organic product-wise, there's not a lot coming out of the factory.Corey: I'll take it a bit further-slash-sadder, we take a look at some great companies that were acquired—OpenDNS, Duo Security, SignalFX, as you mentioned, Epsagon, ThousandEyes—and once they've gotten acquired by Cisco, they all more or less seem to be frozen in time, like they're trapped in amber, which leads us up to the natural dinosaur analogy that I'll probably make in a less formal setting. It just feels like once a company is bought by Cisco, their velocity peters out, a lot of their staff leaves, and what you see is what you get. And I don't know if that's accurate, I'm just not looking in the right places, but every time I talk to folks in the industry about this, I get a lot of knowing nods that are tied to it. So, whether or not that's true or not, that is very clearly, at least in some corners of the market, the active perception.Clint: There's a very real fact that if you look even at very large companies, innovation is driven from a core set of a handful of people. And when those people start to leave, the innovation really stops. It's those people who think about things back from first principles—like why are we doing things? What different can we do?—and they're the type of drivers that drive change.So, Frank Slootman wrote a book recently called Amp it Up that I've been reading over the last weekend, and he talks—has this article that was on LinkedIn a while back called “Drivers vs. Passengers” and he's always looking for drivers. And those drivers tend to not find themselves as happy in bigger companies and they tend to head for the exits. And so then you end up with the people who are a lot of the passenger type of people, the people who are like—they'll carry it forward, they'll continue to scale it, the business will continue to grow at whatever rate it's going to grow, but you're probably not going to see a lot of the net-new stuff. And I'll put it in comparison to a company like Datadog who I have a vast amount of respect for I think they're incredibly innovative company, and I think they continue to innovate.Still driven by the founders, the people who created the original product are still there driving the vision, driving forward innovation. And that's what tends to move the envelope is the people who have the moral authority inside of an even larger organization to say, “Get behind me. We're going in this direction. We're going to go take that hill. We're going to go make things better for our customers.” And when you start to lose those handful of really critical contributors, that's where you start to see the innovation dry up.Corey: Where do you see the acquisitions coming from? Is it just at some point people shove money at these companies that got acquired that is beyond the wildest dreams of avarice? Is it that they believe that they'll be able to execute better on their mission and they were independently? These are still smart, driven, people who have built something and I don't know that they necessarily see an acquisition as, “Well, time to give up and coast for a while and then I'll leave.” But maybe it is. I've never found myself in that situation, so I can't speak for sure.Clint: You kind of I think, have to look at the business and then whoever's running the business at that time—and I sit in the CEO chair—so you have to look at the business and say, “What do we have inside the house here?” Like, “What more can we do?” If we think that there's the next billion-dollar, multi-billion-dollar product sitting here, even just in our heads, but maybe in the factory and being worked on, then we should absolutely not sell because the value is still there and we're going to grow the company much faster as an independent entity than we would you know, inside of a larger organization. But if you're the board of directors and you're looking around and saying like, hey look, like, I don't see another billion-dollar line of bus—at this scale, right, if your Splunk scale, right? I don't see another billion-dollar line of business sitting here, we could probably go acquire it, we could try to add it in, but you know, in the case of something like a Splunk, I think part of—you know, they're looking for a new CEO right now, so now they have to go find a new leader who's going to come in, re-energize and, kind of, reboot that.But that's the options that they're considering, right? They're like, “Do I find a new CEO who's going to reinvigorate things and be able to attract the type of talent that's going to lead us to the next billion-dollar line of business that we can either build inside or we can acquire and bring in-house? Or is the right path for me just to say, ‘Okay, well, you know, somebody like Cisco's interested?'” or the other path that you may see them go down to something like Silver Lake, so Silver Lake put a billion dollars into the company last year. And so they may be looking at and say, “Okay, well, we really need to do some restructuring here and we want to do it outside the eyes of the public market. We want to be able to change pricing model, we want to be able to really do this without having to worry about the stock price's massive volatility because we're making big changes.”And so I would say there's probably two big options there considering. Like, do we sell to Cisco, do we sell to Silver Lake, or do we really take another run at this? And those are difficult decisions for the stewards of the business and I think it's a different decision if you're the steward of the business that created the business versus the steward of the business for whom this is—the I've been here for five years and I may be here for five years more. For somebody like me, a company like Cribl is literally the thing I plan to leave on this earth.Corey: Yeah. Do you have that sense of personal attachment to it? On some level, The Duckbill Group, that's exactly what I'm staring at where it's great. Someone wants to buy the Last Week in AWS media side of the house.Great. Okay. What is that really, beyond me? Because so much of it's been shaped by my personality. There's an audience, sure, but it's a skeptical audience, one that doesn't generally tend to respond well to mass market, generic advertisements, so monetizing that is not going to go super well.“All right, we're going to start doing data mining on people.” Well, that's explicitly against the terms of service people signed up for, so good luck with that. So, much starts becoming bizarre and strange when you start looking at building something with the idea of, oh, in three years, I'm going to unload this puppy and make it someone else's problem. The argument is that by building something with an eye toward selling it, you build a better-structured business, but it also means you potentially make trade-offs that are best not made. I'm not sure there's a right answer here.Clint: In my spare time, I do some investments, angel investments, and that sort of thing, and that's always a red flag for me when I meet a founder who's like, “In three to five years, I plan to sell it to these people.” If you don't have a vision for how you're fundamentally going to alter the marketplace and our perception of everything else, you're not dreaming big enough. And that to me doesn't look like a great investment. It doesn't look like the—how do you attract employees in that way? Like, “Okay, our goal is to work really hard for the next three years so that we will be attractive to this other bigger thing.” They may be thinking it on the inside as an available option, but if you think that's your default option when starting a company, I don't think you're going to end up with the outcome is truly what you're hoping for.Corey: Oh, yeah. In my case, the only acquisition story I see is some large company buying us just largely to shut me up. But—Clint: [laugh].Corey: —that turns out to be kind of expensive, so all right. I also don't think it serve any of them nearly as well as they think it would.Clint: Well, you'll just become somebody else on Twitter. [laugh].Corey: Yeah, “Time to change my name again. Here we go.” So, if people want to go and learn more about a Cribl Edge, where can they do that?Clint: Yeah, cribl.io. And then if you're more of a technical person, and you'd like to understand the specifics, docs.cribl.io. That's where I always go when I'm checking out a vendor; just skip past the main page and go straight to the docs. So, check that out.And then also, if you're wanting to play with the product, we make online available education called Sandboxes, at sandbox.cribl.io, where you can go spin up your own version of the product, walk through some interactive tutorials, and get a view on how it might work for you.Corey: Such a great pattern, at least for the way that I think about these things. You can have flashy videos, you can have great screenshots, you can have documentation that is the finest thing on this earth, but let me play with it; let me kick the tires on it, even with a sample data set. Because until I can do that, I'm not really going to understand where the product starts and where it stops. That is the right answer from where I sit. Again, I understand that everyone's different, not everyone thinks like I do—thankfully—but for me, that's the best way I've ever learned something.Clint: I love to get my hands on the product, and in fact, I'm always a little bit suspicious of any company when I go to their webpage and I can't either sign up for the product or I can't get to the documentation, and I have to talk to somebody in order to learn. That's pretty much I'm immediately going to the next person in that market to go look for somebody who will let me.Corey: [laugh]. Thank you again for taking so much time to speak with me. I appreciate it. As always, it's a pleasure.Clint: Thanks, Corey. Always enjoy talking to you.Corey: Clint Sharp, CEO and co-founder of Cribl. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice along with an angry comment. And when you hit submit, be sure to follow it up with exactly how many distinct and disparate logging systems that obnoxious comment had to pass through on your end of things.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Slow tablet, My Chromcast is choking, Cable company had issues hooking doorbell cam, Microsoft want's your credit card to load Win 11 beta, OpenDNS does it work with Linksys Velop?,  Samsung running out of space – it's the OS, Help CFG my Arlo, Should I upgrade to Win 11?  

Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and former CEO of AngelList.[2] He has invested early-stage in over 200 companies including Uber, FourSquare, Twitter, Wish.com, Poshmark, Postmates, Thumbtack, Notion, SnapLogic, Opendoor, Clubhouse, Stack Overflow, OpenDNS, Yammer, and Clearview AI, with over 70 total exits and more than 10 Unicorn companies. Most importantly, Naval found a way to be happy. His wisdom is timeless and this episode uses clips from his podcast episode on Happiness. We hope you enjoy the finale episode of this season. We will be returning in the fall.

Ever wondered how the Kobe Bryant's, Tom Brady's, and Michael Jordan's of the world stay on the top of their game?  On today's show, we interview the incredible Omar Zarabi, Founder and CEO, Port53 who shares with us his wisdom on excellence, passion, and goal-setting.  As a 4-year-old kid from Afghanistan who did not know a word of English, Omar was constantly bullied by his classmates.  And when you are picked on for being different, one of the two things can happen - either you withdraw into a shell. Or, like, Omar, you grow up with a chip on your shoulder. Determined to prove everyone wrong, Omar was driven to excel from a very young age. So, needless to say, he was great in sports and academics in high school. He graduated with a degree in Economics from UC Davis and took up the CollegeWorks internship at this juncture. Upon graduation, he got a sales position at OpenDNS (which was later acquired by Cisco). Alongside, he also started his first entrepreneurial venture, BlueBoard. Currently, Omar is the Founder and CEO of the cyber-security firm, Port53. A hugely successful entrepreneur, Omar is driven by his passion and his thirst for excellence.  Learn how a firm commitment to above-average goals can motivate you to put your best self forward. And how you can stoke your passion in constant pursuit of excellence. Enjoy! What You Will Learn In This Show How to constantly reset the bar higher and higher Cheat codes for cultivating a positive mindset Setting above-average goals for above-average results How I started an IT company without zero coding knowledge And so much more… Resources College Works   Edge Of Excellence Is Brought To You By College Works Painting Internship College Works Paintings provides college and university students a unique, life-transforming opportunity to build business management and leadership skills, hands-on. The internship empowers students to run their own local businesses, manage their own crew of people, and provide a much-needed service within their communities - while earning money as well as an invaluable experience. Their internship allows students to not only gain valuable work experience but to help finance their college educations as well. The company is known for having some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. To learn more: https://www.collegeworks.com/students-home-page/

Helpful links from the episode: Stripe MnSearch Summit MozCon a16z Podcast: What Time Is It? From Technical to Product to Sales CEO David Ulevitch on Twitter FULL SHOW NOTES[music]00:12 Aaron Weiche: Episode nine, The CEO Journey.00:16 INTRO: Welcome to The SaaS Venture podcast, sharing the adventure of leading and growing a bootstrap SaaS company. Here the experiences challenges wins and losses, shared in each episode, from Aaron Weiche of GatherUp and Darren Shaw of Whitespark. Let's go.[music]00:42 AW: Welcome to the SaaS venture podcast. I'm Aaron.00:45 Darren Shaw: And I'm Darren.00:47 AW: And we are back in front of a microphone, sharing our business secrets, our love secrets, everything in between, and making them public, so that we can share them with our listeners. And, if anything, sometimes it's probably cathartic and healing and everything else, wouldn't you say? 01:07 DS: Yeah, definitely, I have not yet shared any love secrets, so I'm not sure where you're going with that, but...[chuckle]01:15 DS: May be a future episode. I don't know.01:17 AW: I'm just trying to keep things broad, all the time, right? 01:20 DS: Broad, yeah. 'Cause you know we never know what we're gonna talk about.01:22 AW: Yeah, no, if this turns into a relationship podcast on how you and I get along, and our friendship and being there for each other and everything else, we could pivot right, like, software is all about pivoting at different times.01:35 DS: It really is, yeah, and I think we should definitely keep that in our back pocket.[chuckle]01:40 AW: Alright, so with that, we'll both get up off the davenport and the attempt to talk on a few different topics today, especially the deeper content we want to get into on kinda the CEO journey. We have a lot to cover there, we will probably, once again, have a hard time keeping ourself to 40 minutes but hopefully the content is appreciated. But what have you been up to since our last episode on churn a few weeks ago, Darren? 02:12 DS: What have I been up to? Well, we've talked about this Local Search service a number of times, and how we're re-pivoting that actually, speaking of pivoting, into a Google My Business Management Service. And so I hired someone new for that. Basically Allie is my primary person that is running that service and she's at capacity, so we need to hire, and so can't really launch it until we have new people hired and trained and ready to do the service. So, I hired Sydney, she worked with us in the past, she's pretty awesome. And so she started yesterday. And I put out a job posting too. And so we're just trying to get the people in place to be able to service the service because we have a waiting list of 30 people that are interested already. I don't even... Honestly, I worry that we might never even launch the landing page because we'll just keep picking people off the waiting list, 'cause the waiting less seems to be growing faster than we can hire and train people to build the service up.03:10 DS: So, it's very interesting to me that there's that much interest in the service, I think it's gonna be very successful for us, and I think we've dialed in our processes really well. So, the next thing to dial-in, is hiring and training and scaling it up so I'm excited about that. That's big for us, for sure.03:24 AW: That's awesome to have that type of demand. That part has to feel really good.03:29 DS: It feels great, and I think it's like... I had read a tweet or some one... Some luminary of the modern age, had tweeted that the biggest success factor for companies is not really product or anything, it's timing. And so having the right product at the right time, that people need, and I feel like that's precisely what we're doing with this service. So I'm excited about that. And I know there's competition out there, but it's early stages. We have a great reputation that we've built up in this space, and so I think we're really well positioned to do well with the service.04:01 AW: I'm interested, you seem to be comfortable in productized services and things like that, where the whole reason, not the whole reason but one of the reasons I got into SaaS after well over a decade in agency is I wanted to get away from services and I wanted to be strictly product-focused. But you have a good comfort level with that. But yet, man, I would be really, I would be frustrated right now. Like really, I gotta wait on services to get this awesome new thing launched? 04:32 DS: Totally. And you're like, you have a software, you just flip the switch. "Okay, sign up everybody." And so there is something beautiful with that. There are two types of services. There is a complex agency, SEO service where every case is different and everyone's got different needs, and some clients are more of a hassle than others. Same thing with something like web design where you're building out a website. There's just so many touch points with the client that it's really hard to scale that. And what I have found is with a very simple streamlined one thing type of service, so citation building, for example, it scales really well. It's like, this is what it is, you buy it, you basically get a product, really, it's a very specific thing. And there's not a lot of back and forth, there's not too much... Not to many questions about it, right? 05:22 DS: And so everyone gets the same thing. And that's where the pivot happened actually, 'cause I had turned the Local Search service into something more complicated than it needed to be, which opened the flood gates for all of that like different clients and how do we handle practitioner listings, and just lots of complication. So scaling it back to just this really helps us to build something that's scalable. And so I am comfortable with this as a productized service but I totally hear you on just services in general. They can be a real pain in the ass and very hard to scale.05:53 AW: Yeah, well, good for you. You are a braver man than I am and totally... Nothing wrong with it. Not in my wheelhouse of a fit right now but how is it right? You said you're posting, and I know this, I've talked a number of episodes on hiring, especially for sales positions, which I'll give an update on and we're continuing to do. But in talking before the podcast, you kinda have a few little tips for people in hiring and posting to job boards.06:27 DS: So yeah, this, this job posting I actually forgot to do it when I first launched the job posting. I put out... So I posted the job and I had done this last time, but we use Indeed.ca, I think, I'll see if there's any indeed.com, but we post our jobs to Indeed and so, we get a flood of applications and most people, they just press the button to apply through Indeed. I have a very specific note that says, "How to apply," and it says, "Include your resume and cover letter," and it says, "and email it to darren@whitespark.ca." It also says right in the, "How to apply," "If you just apply through Indeed, instead of emailing Daren directly then we'll know you didn't read this and it'll be really helpful for us for filtering our candidates." So this is awesome because I get... So far I've probably had about 40 applications for this job and only five of them read this instruction. Most of them are just like, it's like a volume game, they apply to every job that's on Indeed, and I don't wanna waste my time with those people, I want people that actually took the time to read this, decided this if is a job for them, and they emailed me directly. And so I have three really solid candidates already, and I just posted the job yesterday, and then the other ones, they just go straight to the bin. I don't even look at 'em. I just archive them.07:45 AW: Awesome.07:46 DS: Yeah.07:46 AW: Totally agree with you. We always ask, "Tell us about yourself, share links to wherever you're creating content or are a part of content on the web. And yeah, you get the ones that are just plain but the ones that actually take the time, you can see that they're just so much more of a qualified candidate. And it is amazing to like, if it's a job you really want or you're really interested in, put in the effort to differentiate yourself. It blows in my mind that people just fall short on that.08:13 DS: Yeah, they don't care, they're just playing a numbers game, they're like, "Well, if I apply for 100 jobs I might get two interviews, and then one of those could turn into a job." They're just lazy.08:23 AW: Finding a job should not be like a marketing funnel. I don't think.08:26 DS: Seriously. And it's like how are they not a little bit more discerning in what they apply for? It seems like they're... Like people that just do not have the right skill set that we're looking for are applying for everything it seems.08:37 AW: Yup. Well, that's a great tip. Include something that knows people care, they want it, they pay attention to detail and read things through before they take action. Those are all great pre-interview filters to help you know what you're dealing with.08:52 DS: Yeah, totally. Also, we signed up for Stripe. We did the deal yesterday. So I've been talking with a salesperson over there. So I'm so excited 'cause we're building our new account system, and Stripe just looks amazing. My developers are doing the happy dance all over the place. Just getting off of PayPal, moving over to Stripe, and Stripe billing looks so nice. Did you know they have this feature? This is a tip for all of our listeners. Stripe has a magical feature that will automatically update credit cards that are expiring. They have an agreement with Visa and MasterCard, and let's say your credit card is expiring, then, this system which only costs an extra 0.4% recurring revenue, will automatically update credit cards that are expiring. So you don't have to chase people with expired cards. Did you know that that was a thing? 09:44 AW: I didn't, I didn't at all. That is mind-blowing.09:47 DS: Right? Holy, I'm so excited about that. So this is... I think it's fairly new. But he told me that and I was like, scrambling to find a pen, so I could sign this contract 'cause oh my God, that's gonna be such a great feature.10:01 AW: Yeah, now there's a few. My CFO and some of our customer success team members would love to hear that. We run an internal report, and that will show us like, "Alright, here's who's failing, and we're communicating and making attempts." And then they usually get involved with a human reach out and it's only... It might be anywhere from three to 10 accounts in a month out of thousands that need that. But man, they would love to have that off their plate, and some of them turn into cancel billings, right? There's even more of what those are. So, wow, that sounds really interesting.10:36 DS: Yeah, look it up. They got a new feature. I think you're already on it. Yeah, 'cause I recalled getting Stripe invoices from your team. So I'm pretty sure that you already have the feature. You just need to flip the switch, maybe.10:48 AW: Yeah, no, we're not in Stripe, so.10:51 DS: Oh, you're not? 10:51 AW: No, we're not, we're on PayPal.10:54 DS: My condolences.10:57 AW: Yeah. [chuckle] But, yeah, we'll see as our process, we're just starting in on the billing system stuff decisions and... Month down the road I'll have updates on what that looks like, but that's in step. But yeah, the payment processing might change for us some day.11:15 DS: Sure. Well, what do you have updates on what's new in your world? 11:18 AW: Yeah, on the good side of things, really happy, I know I mentioned this in our last episode, but our customer success team with bringing in a new leader there, a couple of months ago is really going great. We've added on to our onboarding process where... We used to... We did a great job of getting people onboarded and set up, but we missed a number of opportunities to kind of be a little bit more consultative and outline things. And then once they got to, "Alright, go," then we just weren't as good as following up and making sure that things were progressing well. We were there if they had questions, but we weren't really leading them.12:00 DS: Totally.12:00 AW: And he already in a couple of months, Taylor has just done a great job of putting that together and getting that in motion and that was just a great example of things I know that needed to be done, but in being too many places and too many things, like it just was an area I can focus and I could lead, so I'm super happy with that. We're getting ready for... We have a couple events in the near future, Minnesota Search this week and their Summit which you've just spoken at and been at in the past.12:32 DS: Yup, that's a great one.12:33 AW: Yup. We're a sponsor at that, so excited to talk to all the local agencies and in-house marketers, at roughly around 300 to 400 attend that great one-day event. And then we're kind on a three-and-a-half weeks until MozCon. So really excited about that from every aspect. We're a sponsor from the biz dev side, seeing so many friends in the industry, yourself included, like it really is just a fun three or four days to everybody together. Yeah.13:04 DS: Yeah, I can't wait. It's going to be so fun. We'll be hanging out.13:07 AW: Yeah, on the sales side. So I'm trying to feel better about this. We did extend an offer to a new sales person on Friday. I'll know in the next couple of days, that they've accepted. I'm feeling confident that we're able to kinda meet the needs and we're a good fit for each other. But I was really, I was really trying hard to hire two or three at once and maximize training and get more output and things like that, and I just couldn't find out of the group I was talking to a good second or even a third candidate. So, a little frustrated. I'm still... I wanted our outbound sales to be up and running months ago and just hitting stride now, but yet I'm still at the beginning and really actually need another body or two for how we're planning to work this. So, that part's a little frustrating, and I go back and forth between beating myself up about it and then having to re-motivate to, it's okay, these bumps happen and work through them.14:09 DS: Hiring sales is so hard. So yeah...14:12 AW: It is.14:12 DS: And I think finding one good person is great and you might be able to get into this position where this new person is just fantastic. And that they're able to be the one that trains the next two people.14:24 AW: Yep. No, absolutely. And then from an overall perspective, it's just been a lot of fun. Google's had a number of updates, lately. It just seems like they've been on a tear, it's still around local and other things, but we're just seeing reputation and in having a product with GatherUp being related to capturing customer feedback and generating online reviews, reputation is just... The easiest way put it is, it is becoming the most visible piece of data about your business.14:53 DS: Yeah.14:53 AW: Yeah, Google just released some things today. If you're Googling phone numbers for a business or an address for a business, they're attaching reputation call-outs to all those simple type of informational services. Two weeks ago, it was a Google Q and A. That feature having automated answering that, it'll pull up reviews related to the question you're being asked. So, this shift to consumer, customer-generated data in the form of reviews and Google is doing more and more and more with it. That's fabulous for us. It just plays into what we've been talking about and we haven't seen maybe these exact things, but we are really... It feels good to know that it's right in line with what we knew was gonna happen, we didn't know how, but we've really figured it would.15:44 DS: Yeah, it's just like as I see more and more of these features come on, it's like, "Google's squeezing everybody else out, it's like they're just gonna become the only review site, it almost feels like. Other than a first party, it feels like Yelp is gonna get pushed out and some of the industry sites will get pushed out. It's just Google is doing such a good job of putting their content front center and really using their content. So, yeah, that's pretty amazing.16:09 AW: Yeah. No, and I don't wanna steal any thunder from our co-founder and my friend Mike Blumenthal but he's had his finger on the pulse of this. And you're exactly right with that. And I think at the LocalU Advanced in Denver in September, I already have seen some of this data and studies. But you're right it's gone from a dozen review site players to really one review site player. And he has some really interesting data on how it's impacted Yelp and some of the other things. And for us it even pushes more the reason why we say first-party reviews really should be treated with a lot of respect and a lot of value, because if you leave everything, all of those eggs only into Google's basket, we just think that that that's just such a huge mistake and you're missing the boat on so many other things that you can do to both improve your business and market it.17:01 DS: Yeah, is that new feature where they highlight the reviews, and then they show the different review sites on mobile, will it pull first-party into those? 17:09 AW: Yeah, reviews from the web? 17:10 DS: Yeah.17:11 AW: Yeah, yup, it absolutely will.17:13 DS: Okay.17:14 AW: Yeah, there's just a number of things... I don't know... I'm just off the... Look, first party reviews are like the utility knife that a marketer really needs to focus on because it's a tool that you can use where GMB reviews are absolutely visible and have a great amount of visibility and draw to them, but you are just missing out if you don't whip out that Swiss army knife that's in your pocket to be able to MacGyver a million things on the marketing side.17:45 DS: Yeah, totally. Totally.17:46 AW: Well cool, with that, we kinda wanted to talk about a podcast. I was lucky enough, I had a long time industry friend who passed along this podcast to me and said, "Hey I think this would be of interest to you." So thanks, Ed Kohler, for passing that along, but it's the a16z podcast, and the topic of this podcast was really understanding that the journey and the stages of being a SaaS CEO. And the title of it and we'll link it in our show notes, you can give it a listen but it was, "What time is it?" And it was from being a technical to a product to a sales CEO. And the guest on the podcast was David Ulevitch. He founded OpenDNS sold it to Cisco. He's kind of morphed into a few different things now, he's on the VC side. But the high level of it and where I wanted you and I to discuss it, I sent it your way after listening to it, but it outlined that he looked at it as like four stages that every CEO goes through or has the opportunity to go through. The first stage is more of a technical CEO.19:00 AW: You're trying to build it, get it built, is it feasible, do people want it? Then the next one you evolve into is being that product CEO, and now you're trying to figure out, do you have product market fit? You're doing discovery with customers that you think you have that with. You're listening to them so you can build the right features and evolve the right way, and ultimately are you solving those right problems? Then the next one is the sales CEO, and once you have that fit, now you're like, "Great, how do I generate more revenue so I can grow the company, acquire more customers?" And then lastly, if you are able to make it out of that is then you're that go-to-market CEO at the higher level. You have a VP of sales and a VP of Customer Success and all these other things and you're looking to, how do I scale and accelerate and have all the right pieces so that I can grow this as much as possible? 19:50 DS: Yeah.19:50 AW: And that simple look of it and just building it into four stages was something that really resonated with me that I looked at like, "Oh, I can identify with that," 'cause I've gone through... I wasn't a technical CEO 'cause I wasn't a founder day one, but I definitely came in and had to be the product CEO, and now I'm transitioning into that sales CEO.20:13 DS: For sure. You see that as you build your sales team and as you personally experiment with some of this outbound sales stuff, like yeah, you're really into that sales CEO position right now. Does it feel that way to you? Are you still... You must still though go back to product 'cause you're always on... It's a big touch point. Like, what are the new features? How are we solving problems? What are the new problems that are coming up that we want our product to solve? So you kinda jump back and forth, do you know? 20:37 AW: Yeah, no, I definitely do. I think if I had to pick one, I'm absolutely in the sales CEO. My initial thing a year-and-a-half ago when I kinda took the reins over, it was like, it gave me more control to get the right features that I felt were missing when I was out doing sales and interacting with customers. And I think we achieved...20:57 DS: Right. Right.21:00 AW: Better product market fit and we're able to do it in a good cycle. But I do. I wanna get to be that go-to-market CEO, the overseeing, and I have smart people better than me in all of these areas to do all of the right things. So I definitely wanna get there. But I do have a... I have a love for what we do and I'm very passionate about the high level of vision and problems we're trying to solve and things like that. So I think I'll always have a toe in the water over there on the product side. But, I don't know. I don't know if I'll always wanna be the stuck-in-the-sales-cycle, the one generating the majority of the bigger accounts.21:38 DS: Yeah, I feel like I'm pretty firmly seated right now in the product CEO stage. I spent a lot of my time thinking about product market fit, trying to thinking about features, a lot of the sort of research I do, like I'm kind of in the trenches as an SEO still, like I'm not...22:00 AW: Yeah.22:00 DS: I spend a lot of time researching SEO things 'cause that's what I'm really passionate about. And so, that permeates into the products that we build and then I'm the one that's sort of reviewing everything that the team is building and advising on it and working on design and layout and so... And features. So I really feel like I spent too much time in the product CEO role, and I should have the right people in place that can do that for me so I can move to that next stage. That's sales CEO. This four stages, this podcast, is a little bit illuminating for me in like helping to direct maybe where I should be because I love being a product CEO, but in order to grow the company, I think I need to focus more on becoming a sales CEO. So this has been super valuable for me to think about it in these terms.22:50 AW: Yeah, and that was a really big that... There's one comment that David made in here, right, where he said it's all about making the right decisions for the right time, and I feel like you just alluded to that, right, where you realized where you're at and then it's maybe... So what are your options to move out of that, right? Like, do you... I...23:09 DS: Yeah.23:09 AW: You need to find a product manager that can take over the product part and you...23:13 DS: Exactly. I got one, I know who he is.23:15 AW: Yeah.23:16 DS: Yeah.23:16 AW: Yeah, where you can still influence it and do whatever, but the lion share of it is off your plate so you can focus your time on the other, right? And that's... That's that same progression when I've looked at a number of these is like in order to get yourself out of it, you have to replace yourself there or find someone better than you specifically at that, and that can be hard too because to some extent, you might look at... Do you feel like you're better at product than sales and you'd only be doing sales because the company needs it, or what does that look like for you? 23:46 DS: I feel like I'm... Like, when it comes to doing sales, like if we think about any enterprise leads that come in, I have a much higher close rate and I think because I'm so familiar with the product and the industry, it helps me to come across as very trustworthy, right? People wanna hire me because I know what I'm talking about, and it really helps to close the sale. So, I think there's a great opportunity for me to transition into a sales CEO and then build our sales culture, so then start to hire, basically get to the position you're at right now.24:17 AW: Yup.24:17 DS: And so... And I have a really good guy, Nick. He is fantastic. He could definitely be the product manager. I have him doing client work right now and it's like, "Man, we gotta just ditch those clients, bite the bullet and have Nick become the product manager and I'll step out of it and spend my time on sales."24:34 DS: But you know what the trouble is? I'm the type of person that I only like to do what I like to do. [chuckle] And so, I don't love doing sales, and so that... I'm just like, "Argh, sales." Like sometimes it's like I'll have a great sales call and then it's like, "Yeah, sure, I'll send him a proposal eventually, I guess." Like, I'm just not good at staying on top of it and I'm not... I don't get pumped about sales and excited about closing the deal.25:00 AW: Yeah.25:01 DS: I just want money to come to me though I didn't have to do anything for it. I just wanna sit back and money just rains in.25:06 AW: Yeah.[chuckle]25:07 DS: That's what I want.25:08 AW: And it does sound nice, but maybe that's where you realized like, "Okay, I actually need sales people," but they utilize you as an asset, right? Where...25:17 DS: Yeah, maybe.25:18 AW: Bring Darren to the call to build trust and answer so many questions and salesperson Sarah or Sam, they're handling the communication. They're staying on top. They're doing all those things, right? Like, I think there's ways to architect that.25:32 DS: Oh, my, that's a genius idea, Aaron.[chuckle]25:34 DS: I will do that because I love the sales call. I love being on the call and chatting with the clients and learning from them and it really helps to inform the product side too, right? 25:42 AW: Yeah.25:43 DS: So, I do love that, but I don't wanna put the proposals and statements of work together and go back and forth with legal. No thanks.25:52 AW: Yeah. And I don't mind those things. I do, like I love to evangelize our product. I love to tell the story of what we do and show people, like just before we started recording today, I just got off a sales call, and we are taking someone from a competitor in the space and we are giving them exactly what they want at a massive cost reduction. Like it's just...26:14 DS: Great.26:14 AW: Yeah, wins across the board, and I love that. I get a high off of winning that deal and doing whatever, but I've realized over the years and in building agencies, like that self-awareness, here's what I'm good at, here's what I'm not very good at, and I need to find people who are good for those other areas. And then even if I like, even if it fills my tank to participate in those, then participate as long as you're not taking away from it and figure out what can you add to it without missing the gap on all of the other little pieces, right? I love being part of product, but if I had to be the product manager and all the detail and writing Jira tickets and all those other things, I would fail within weeks at that too, like I'm not a detail. I'm a big vision type person. So you gotta understand those things and then figure out how you can add to it and make it work.27:08 DS: Yeah. I think it's a bit of a lesson for me. I tend to get way too detaily. I get really deep and I'm like, "Make this donut chart slightly thicker." Like I'm really fine into the details where it's a lot of my time, right? 27:22 AW: Yeah.27:22 DS: And so this is where a product manager would fill that role for me.27:26 AW: Yep, absolutely. One thing that we talked about when we were kind of comparing notes on this was also understanding and you and I's world of running bootstrapped companies and limited resources, that some of this seems over-simplified and it's coming from someone with VC experience and revenue backed startups that's already there to play with it and everything else.27:46 DS: Yeah.27:50 AW: But what's really important is you can take from those. You can take from podcasts, from VC and big companies and whatever else, but it's finding the little pieces that you can work into your own framework, right? 28:03 DS: Yeah, absolutely. Well, one of the awesome things from this podcast, I really liked where he talked about laying out your packages and plans. So I love that idea. What he suggests is taking your packages and plans and sort of designing them for your different customer profiles. For example, small businesses, agencies, enterprise in my case, right? And so they have different needs, and so I can push the different tiers based off of those needs. So something... So, small business is our base plan, and then if you want white labeling, well, you have to have the agency plan. If you want enterprisey-type reporting, you need to be on the enterprise plan. And so having those levers that will push people to the next tier is really smart, and I don't really do that right now. So I definitely took that.28:54 DS: But yeah, it felt frustrating to be on a podcast, to listen to some of those things and think, "Well, those are all great when you are a CEO that has a leadership team where you can sit back and be big picture, but personally as a bootstrapped company, I feel like I'm running around answering everyone's questions." Right? So all the questions kinda come to me 'cause I am for the most part the leadership team, and so I'm not there yet. I don't have the resources to hire a leadership team. And so it is a little frustrating to hear these big picture things, but that's not to say that you can't take so much from it, right? 29:32 AW: Yeah. Now, understandable when you look at it and there's certain parts of it, it's like, "Oh, they make it sound so easy and this is what you do and you have a lot of room to offer a salary and all these other things to implement that."29:48 DS: Yeah.29:49 AW: But for us, all I can say is that that's what's led me that I've already seen in scaling past businesses how important that was, and really in a couple of them, I was one of those pieces, right? I wasn't the CEO, but I was the one tapped to like, "Okay, Aaron will come in and handle sales," or, "Aaron will come in and handle the brand and marketing and putting this team in place."30:06 DS: Yep.30:10 AW: And what I saw in participating as part of those teams is like this is really where the company is run, right? Because if everything hits a bottleneck of one person, the CEO, or whatever that is, you just become infinitely limited in what you can do. But it's hard in those early days where that's all that you have room for is your one thinker and a lot of doers, but you need those additional thinkers and leaders within those areas to hit those bigger strides. But it's tricky on when who's the right one, especially your first one, right? How do I find the right person to trust, invest in and know that they have, they're in great alignment with what I wanna see done with the company? 30:57 DS: Yeah. No, you're already a few steps ahead of me for sure in terms of leadership team. So you've got... Describe your structure right now. So you're a CEO and then you have a product manager.31:07 AW: Yep.31:08 DS: You have... You now have a sales manager, right? Yeah? 31:10 AW: Not sales manager. That's really the last area I need to close. So I have one person that... I do kinda double as VP of product, but we have a product manager that handles all of the day-to-day and communication with their engineering team and all those pieces, so they are pretty much the owner of that area. We have a CFO to own finances, HR, hiring benefits, all of that kind of stuff. With the recent hire of a VP of Customer Success, I have someone that owns that team and is, like I said, in 60 days has already had a fabulous impact there. And then I have someone in head of design that he kinda works with the product manager for all interface design and feature design and all that kind of stuff. So it's a little bit of a tandem there, but that really gives me that.32:01 DS: Yeah.32:02 AW: And sales is that last place where it's like I completely own that right now. We only have one sales person on staff. We're trying to bring on a second, but I need to get enough bodies and I either need one to emerge as a leader that I can say, "Hey, this is yours to own and you need to build goals and you need to train and do whatever else," or I need to find that person. But right now I'm just at the stage where I just need more staff allocated to doing sales even more so than I need a leader or a builder of that area.32:30 DS: Interesting, and you talking about your structure and all these different people and me thinking about me being that CEO bottleneck, one sort of spark of an idea that I just had was all these questions that come at me, it's a good exercise for me as a leader to look at that and say, "Who else could own this question?" Rather than me answering this, who could be the person that can make a decision on these things and then building up those people within my team and saying, "This is something you can handle," or at least, or thinking about a role of someone that can handle that and then slowly trying to siphon off these decisions, 'cause what does a CEO do? They just make decisions all day long, deciding what this should be, that should be, and it's like trying to put other people in positions to make those decisions for the company, I think, is the key to getting into that stage where I would be able to focus on being a visionary rather than the person that has to answer every question.33:32 AW: Absolutely. And yeah, I don't ever wanna be that bottleneck and I don't wanna be the only resource too. Number one, I am incredibly opinionated. And sometimes that's a strength because I'm gonna have a strong opinion and I'm gonna do research and get experience to back it up and all those different things. It's not gonna be... It's not just gonna be thrown into the wind. There's a lot to support it, but on the other end of that, sometimes that causes me to just be too stuck in my ways or only viewing it one way. And that's one thing that I found by empowering other people and giving them decisions.34:06 DS: Yeah.34:09 AW: And then just creating... I think it's really important then to create a communication cycle where you're in the loop but the loop still goes without you, right? So you don't have to be in it all.34:20 DS: Yeah.34:21 AW: And sometimes I hear the decisions and sometimes I'm like, "Huh, yeah, I wouldn't have done it that way or thought about it, but that totally works," and sometimes has more success than what I would have dreamed up. And there's still are times where I'm like, "Wait a minute, how do that get decided? I think we missed some things," and whatever else, but those are just teaching moments that everyone to talk through it.34:38 DS: Sure. Yep.34:40 AW: So the next time that we have that we can approach it differently.34:43 DS: Yep. Yeah, and the one thing I've learned more and more is that when I am not rigid on my opinion, then I often come around to the opinion of others and realize, "You know what? I think he makes some really good points and that is probably the best direction to go." And so I really try to be open and think about it from the different perspectives. I feel like that's one of the primary features of a leader, like you really have to be able to listen hard and listen well and think about what other people are suggesting 'cause that oftentimes, we'll have better ideas than you do.35:23 AW: Yep. What would it look like for Whitespark if Darren said, "I'm taking the rest of 2019 off," who would own the different areas and make the decisions and whatever else? I think that would be an interesting scenario for you to play through in your head. And then how do you maybe implement some of those or start working through some of those things so that you can peel it away? Because I find and maybe you'd find the same, like I need space to think. I can't come up with big ideas or vision or the next partnership or whatever else if I'm just so far down in the weeds on little mundane decisions on how many pixels something is, not to say I still don't stick my head down in there, but I really shouldn't do that.36:08 DS: Yeah, exactly. Well, you know what? I'm just gonna do it. I'm taking the rest of 2019 off. Good idea, Aaron.[laughter]36:14 DS: Thank you. That's it. I'm out. Good luck, Whitespark.36:18 AW: Yeah, the Whitespark team is gonna send me some hate mail for sure.[laughter]36:23 DS: Yeah. No, it's a really great thought exercise and to think about who takes over because honestly, I go on vacations and I do work hard to disconnect and the company never falls apart. It runs just fine without me. When I get back, there's some decisions that are waiting for me, but I think it does come back to really trying to assign those decisions and empowering people on my team to make those decisions without me and rather than holding the reins on some of these things. So I'm gonna really use this as a starting point to look for those decisions and say, "Who else could make this decision instead of me?"37:01 AW: Yeah. Ultimately, Darren, through those four stages, and you talk about how you're primed that second stage in the product right now, do you ultimately even wanna get to the fourth stage? Like is that where you wanna be? Because I think it's okay too to look and say like, "These things I am, this I'm not. I don't ever wanna get there. And if anything, someday I might hire a CEO and I just stay, I'm VP of Product," right? What does that look like for you? 37:25 DS: I can tell you exactly. When I look at these four stages, this is what I wanna happen. I've already passed technical CEO, the feasibility, the building, but we have a pretty good product and obviously it needs a lot more work and that's why I'm spending so much time in product, in the product CEO stage because of churn, actually. David Ulevitch mentioned this on the podcast that if you've identified... We're talking about what time it is. Well, right now, what time it is right now, it is fix the product, and that's what we're doing right now. And so when the product is fixed, I think I would love to skip sales for the most part. I would like the model that you described where I am still on sales calls and I'm thinking about sales and I'm thinking about how to grow sales, but I'm not the person closing for the most part. And then once the product is humming and we can scale, then I would love to jump to that, go-to-market CEO stage and scale the business like to $5, $10, $100 million.38:26 DS: That is my dream and that is where I want to get in the next five years. I wanna get there, and I think I can get there and I do think it really comes down to getting the right people in place at those stages, because once you get a really good product manager, you don't have to be a product CEO anymore. Once you get an awesome sales director, you don't have to be the sales CEO and then you can really focus on being that go-to-market CEO. And so these four stages are really... It's a really great framework to think about as the leader of a company and trying to say, "How are we," and then make your plans, right? Plan out how are we gonna get to those stages and what do we need to do to reach that stage? And for me, I know exactly what it is for the most part. It'll evolve over time, but I know how to get there. And so I think our road map looks pretty good for that, but I'll be a product CEO for at least another year I think.39:20 AW: That's a brilliant take, and I think the most important thing when I look at that is just that self-awareness, where even he broke down, it's really about asking where are you right now, "what time is it? ". You just answered that, and where do you wanna go. And sometimes, especially when you're so busy in the business, you don't step out and look at a framework like this or see, what type of leader do I need to be and where do I need to be focusing that gets us to the right place? 39:49 DS: Yeah.39:50 AW: And just as you're there right now, that... It's still, as you alluded to, I still have my hand in that a little bit, but we fixed a lot of the things that we needed to have that product market fit where I didn't get my rear end kicked on the sales calls I was on, and even to some extent, there's a couple more things we're releasing this year which really takes my confidence to an all-time record high, and it shows in your sales call. That's, if anything, I probably only did the product CEO so heavily just because I knew what I needed to sell to be the sales CEO, and I knew if I was gonna go into the ring and just get my butt kicked every time, it was gonna crash and burn.40:28 DS: Yeah.40:33 AW: The product had to be better. We had to shore up some of the gaps and we were able to do that. But you have to realize that, and if you're only doing... If you're not pulling up and looking at it from this level, you're gonna miss seeing that. If you only look at it in the four or five clear stages, you're not really understanding where you're at. You might not get yourself out of that stage to ever get to the next one.41:00 DS: Yeah, exactly. This framework really helps you to see where you need to focus. Yeah, it's so defeating when I, as a sales, when I'm wearing the sales hat, when the leads come in, it'll be like... We have 10,000 locations. This is a major company that wants to work with us.41:14 AW: Yep.41:15 DS: And we don't have the product for them. This is what I face on a weekly basis, really great leads that I can't service. And so this is where... This is why I'm a product CEO right now. I'm a product CEO because I have to fix our product so that we have... These people are coming at us thinking we have it when we don't actually have it, and so we're building it right now, and I can't wait to have it so I can sell it to them.41:38 AW: Then you just say, "Yep, here is your contract to sign."41:43 DS: Yeah, exactly.41:44 AW: That's awesome. Well, hey we, as I mentioned, we will link to this episode of that podcast in our show notes. Give it a listen, again, if you're a bootstrap company. Most likely you are. That's why you're listening to us as we put out episodes. It isn't about mirroring the VC. They're different. All those things are different, but there's just so many great little details and frameworks to pull out and hopefully us talking about where we're at within this four stage of the CEO's journey is helpful to you and hopefully you can take a look at it and figure out how you're, where you're at in it. Anything you wanna communicate on what's coming up or next for you, Darren before we talk again in a couple of weeks? 42:30 DS: No, nothing big to announce. I'm gonna go to LocalU this week in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. So I'm looking forward to seeing some of the LocalU friends, Mike Blumenthal, Joey Hawkins, Joel Headley. So I'll be, great to see.42:41 AW: That's a great group.42:43 DS: Yeah, really great, and I can't wait to hang out with you and the rest of the get list or the gather-up crew at MozCon. Man, I can't wait for that. It's gonna be fun.42:51 AW: It'll be a great week in Seattle, and yeah, we'll have to, no matter where we're at in our cycle, we will have to record the MozCon in person episode.43:00 DS: Yes. We should actually get that on the calendar so that we know exactly what time we're doing it and we make it happen.43:06 AW: Yeah. And something tells me it's gonna be somewhere where we can have a beverage in front of us to help with all the conversation and ideas.43:12 DS: Yeah, with laptops far away from those beverages.[laughter]43:16 AW: My wife actually told me I can't do any more jokes on you for spilling the beer. She said I wore that out, so I'm glad you did the joke instead of me.43:23 DS: Yeah, I brought it up.43:24 AW: Yep.43:24 DS: Yeah. So you're off the hook on that one.43:26 AW: She's the most critical listener of the SaaS Venture. So...43:30 DS: Great. It's good to have a critical feedback person. Yeah, for sure.43:33 AW: Yeah. You passed with flying colors. You know you're an arm's length away. You can do no wrong. But I gotta work. I gotta work on my game, so...[laughter]43:42 DS: Alright.43:43 AW: Awesome. Well, thanks, Darren. Thanks everybody for listening. We're always trying to grow our audience. So writing a review on Apple iTunes would be helpful. Sharing a link to one of our episodes on social media or letting people in your Mastermind group, your LinkedIn group, out on LinkedIn, any of that, we would so appreciate it. We're excited for the hundreds that we reach, but we would love to have more. And as always, if you have an episode suggestion or an idea, hit Darren or I up on Twitter and we would be happy to try to work that into our topics and into the upcoming shows. So with that, Darren, have a fabulous time at the LocalU event coming up, and I'm excited to see you in Seattle in July.44:26 DS: Alright. Yep, you too. Have a great week. Talk to you later.44:29 AW: Alright. Take care everybody.[music]

A listener wonders what is the best antivirus program to use. We recommend using OpenDNS to surf the web more safely by automatically blocking malicious websites along with Malwarebytes if your computer actually is infected. For a paid antivirus solution, we recommend Webroot antivirus. A user has a completely frozen laptop and is unable to use her laptop. A listener has problems connecting to the Internet with his router. A caller wonders how to check if OpenDNS service is properly configured on her computer after recovering from a virus. We provide instructions on our website on how to check your OpenDNS configuration. We also recommend Webroot Antivirus as a good paid antivirus solution. Also we provide help for provide help to troubleshoot a program that is trying to run when Windows starts. We also assist another user configure OpenDNS on his home router. A listener with no Internet service sees a message that a cable is broken or loose. A caller using Windows 7 backup wants to know if he can place more than one "full" backup on his hard drive. A caller helps out to mention that many Internet Service Providers offer free antivirus programs with their service. A caller seeks an opinion about Amazon's streaming media device called a "Fire stick."

A Mozilla Firefox user has problems loading a particular website. We suggest downloading a new copy of the browser and tell how to "export" bookmarks into the new browser. A caller helps out the Mac QuickTime user from last hour by suggesting VLC Media Player as an alternative video player instead of QuickTime media player. A caller has a problem with an "image sync" viral popup in his taskbar, plus a malicious "cloudfront.net" popup. We offer help on removing the malware, and clearing browser caches. A user asks for help in making sure OpenDNS is still working on her system after her router was serviced by an Internet Service Provider. We also help with information on clearing the browser "cache" (a temporary storage area that helps web pages appear faster) in the Google Chrome web browser. A caller wonders if there has ever been an effort to standardize power connectors on notebook computers. The USB-C connector for power is becoming more standardized for power adapters. Also the caller wonders if there is a way to "mouse over" suspicious links on a cell phone or tablet. We offer a a link to a "URL Deobfuscator" on the Computer Talk With TAB web site. Our final caller is looking for a way to convert old Lotus AmiPro word processing files into Word format.

Erik and Bob take your questions. Tesla reduces electric car prices in the United States as tax credit begins to phase out. China's censors reportedly learn "real" history to stop it from spreading online. Weather Channel app accused of deceptively amassing user location data. Apple profits slump as users opt for reduced cost battery replacements instead of new iPhones. A user who has an unstable, crashing five-year-old laptop wonders if he should fix it or replace it. A new laptop user wonders which anti-virus protection he should buy. We recommend using Webroot anti-virus along with OpenDNS web filtering to help keep your computer safe. An HP laptop user has problems keeping his laptop battery charged and properly calibrated. PepsiCo "snackbot" is a "vending machine on wheels" for college students. A caller wonders about which VPN service is best to use. We offer some advice plus a warning about improperly configured VPN services that can "leak" private information. A Galaxy S4 phone gets a restart message saying that the SIM card is not properly connected, plus gets a recommendation for a good consumer-grade laptop.

Erik Semmel and Bob Shorey take your computer comments, questions and concerns. Congress grills Google CEO. Don’t understand how the technology works. User can’t create restore point on 9 year old Win 7 laptop. Windows 10 and Windows 7 KVM hardware discussion. ProtonMail secure e-mail service. How to Flush DNS after configuring OpenDNS. Do I have to purchase a new Windows Office Suite? Splashtop may be a good remote access tool. User can’t properly print spreadsheet.

Erik and Bob take your computer questions. We start off with a brief description of some IT horror stories with unusual IT legal contracts for IT maintenance, cloud, snd domain services with draconian contract terms. Japan to stop buying Huawei and ZTE equipment over Chinese security concerns. We are more paranoid about privacy concerns in 2018, study says. Facebook used data to favor partners and punish rivals, UK says. We help a user learn how to defer updates in Windows 10 after he experiences keyboard issues. A caller with a new laptop looks for suggestions on how to set it up to surf securely using OpenDNS and antivirus software. Microsoft calls for regulation of facial recognition technology. Microsoft abandons its own browser engine for its Edge browser in favor of open source Chromium engine. Oumuamua comet may be one of many interstellar visitors, says researcher. A Windows 7 user has problems with Control key keyboard shortcuts and software licensing issues.

Oklahoma State University football coach Mike Gundy gives his unvarnished opinions about Twitter and social media websites. We warn users about surfing safely and using OpenDNS after a caller may have visited a fake Amazon website. A user wonders why he gets "undeliverable" e-mail in his spam folder sent to someone else, but appearing to be sent by him. A caller wonders if he should use an Android tablet running the older "Marshmallow" operating system. A user with a laptop running Windows 7 gets error messages related to the "System Event Notification Service" and "Group Policy Service." Old Windows 95 floppy disks found on the International Space Station. A person with two computers asks if he needs two e-mail addresses to properly configure OpenDNS to surf safely. Also, we discuss the tech support tug-of-war with the Internet Service Provider blaming the problem on YOUR equipment rather than THEIR service. We offer suggestions for restoring Windows 10 on a computer with very low disk space. A user wonders about using Windows 10 over concerns that a recent upgrade may delete user files. Also, we answer the age old question of it is better to let a computer sleep or turn it off when you are not using it. A visually impaired user has difficulties with buffering when streaming on the Internet with a specific TV station.

Erik and Bob take your questions. Japan's new cybersecurity minister admits that he's never touched a computer. Rock band Queen's guitarist Brian May expresses frustration over Apple USB-C connectors. NASA to investigate safety culture at SpaceX after Elon Musk's public marijuana use. SpaceX wins FCC approval to put over 7,000 satellites in orbit. In even more SpaceX news, SpaceX schedules first flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon. Amazon.com admits it exposed customer data, but remains quiet on details. A caller seeks recommendations for a 17" laptop for his picture-taking wife, plus wonders if he should purchase a solid state drive for the laptop. A listener tells of his experiences with "shadow storage" in Windows 7 and why it can lead to low disk space. A user gets tips on configuring the OpenDNS service with multiple networks. OpenDNS allows you to surf the web more safely by filtering out unwanted or malicious content on the Internet. Also we talk about cellular signal boosters for use where cellular service is weak. A caller seeks the best way to protect her computer from viruses and malware.

Erik and Bob take your questions and discuss the Chinese company charged with stealing trade secrets from US chip maker. Senators demand Facebook fix its political ad transparency tool. How politicians are using "big data" to determine how you will vote. Report says that Internet freedom is decreasing worldwide. A listener has problems accessing his AT&T e-mails and is looking for a third party e-mail solution which is secure. We talk about how the Internet is accessed in hotels and about how to use OpenDNS with your router to maker surfing safer. A listener has questions about an unexplained browser popup. A listener who has a wireless camera surveillance system has problems getting the system working after a power failure. A caller with a Lenovo desktop has a problem with a display that pixellates and "scrambles" over time. We offer suggestions to a caller to use OpenDNS as a parental control filter for a the Internet. A user with a new "smart" television loses wireless connectivity on other devices when the TV connects. We offer suggestions on how to check your Internet speed and bandwidth.

A listener seeks advice on the value of purchasing a Samsung tablet. A caller wonders why his computer backups to an external drive are taking up so much disk space. Another listener with an external hard drive wonders why the drive will not work when plugged into different computers. We discuss options for professional data recovery. Apple and Samsung fined in Italy for slowing down older phones. A Dell laptop user has problems with a beeping computer and black screen when the system starts up after changing RAM memory. A user with problems configuring OpenDNS on his router gets help on how to configure OpenDNS on each individual computer instead. A Windows 10 user with an audio driver problem that is intermittent gets a surprising solution--update his *video* driver.

Erik and Bob take your questions. Massive Facebook security issue could compromise at least 50 million accounts. Securities and Exchange Commission fines robocaller $80 million in an effort to stem Caller ID spoofing. Federal Communications Commission to cities and states: Stop with fees, regulations slowing the development of 5G cellular service. A listener wants to know if he can read information off an older floppy drive with a parallel printer port bformat in his computer . We alert listeners to a potential Amazon Payment car purchase scam involving gift cards after a caller relates his story. A listener with a new laptop seeks a commercial antivirus solution. We also cover the benefits of using OpenDNS and a popup blocker in order to surf the Internet more safely. A listener gets an error message when trying to open a PDF with Adobe Reader. A fellow computer user and caller suggests using Google Voice as a way to receive messages from an iPhone and display and reply to them using a Windows computer. We help a user with instructions on how to create a "recovery drive" in Windows 10, which may be helpful in the event of a future computer failure.

A novice user wants to know why his computer appears to go black after using it except for a mouse cursor. We believe the issue is related to Windows updates or a backlight issue. Is it safe to leave a laptop plugged in all the time? Also we tell you the proper way to turn off your computer (no, it's actually a bad idea to hold down the power button!) A Mac user tries to send photos embedded in an e-mail; we suggest sending the photos as an attachment. A Windows 8 user has problems with his Internet connection his laptop. We suggest changing DNS settings to OpenDNS can help, or also changing his network adapter. An AOL user has trouble sending e-mail to a SNET e-mail address; we discuss possible solutions. A user with a very old computer running Quicken wants to get a newer computer. We offer some recommendations. A listener has "blue screen" issues with Windows 10; we offer suggestions on how to troubleshoot the issue using a "clean boot."

A listener who wants to stop renting a modem and router from the cable company wants to learn the process for buying your own equipment to save money. A user has a problem with his screen "disappearing" after minimizing program windows in Windows 7. A user has a message pop up "Microsoft account problem. We need to fix your Microsoft account before you can use shared experiences." We detail how to fix this error. We help a caller transfer information from an old hard drive to a new one. We help a user with "The last USB device you connected to this computer has malfunctioned" error pop-up. We help a caller check if OpenDNS is working properly, as well as try to determine which cell phone has the most user friendly parental controls. A user gets a spam e-mail message that has a popup indicating it may be a potential hacking attempt. Another user that may have been victim of a potential hack wonders if he needs to change his e-mail address or other security measures he may need to take. A user wonders if the OpenDNS can be used along with Windows Defender anti-virus program.

Erik and Bob take your questions. Microsoft Azure cloud service suffers massive data outage. Apple removes a popular app that was stealing browser history. Wehe app lets you detect if carriers are throttling your data. Our first caller details his experiences as a victim of the Microsoft Azure outage. Also, we help him learn how to add Bluetooth capability to a laptop which lacks this feature. We discuss whether the new HP "Instant Ink" feature available on certain new HP printers (where ink is sold as a recurring subscription) is worth the cost. Also, we tell you the proper phrase to say to listen to WTIC-AM on your Alexa speaker. A user with a new laptop wants to know if leaving the laptop plugged in leads to a battery "memory" charging problem where the battery cannot charge fully. Jack in Hartford tells of his experiences with the new fiber optic internet service, and how to properly secure the router he needs. Also, how to use OpenDNS to improve your security and speed when using the Internet. Is it safe to use the Linux operating system as an alternative to Windows? A HP printer user wants to know if it's safe to use third party manufactured cartridges in the printer.