Perplexity is an AI chatbot-powered research and conversational search engine that answers queries using natural language predictive text. I've been quite impressed with it. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend checking it out.
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A defect was found in a single content update for CrowdStrike's Falcon sensor on Windows hosts.
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This caused Windows machines to crash, resulting in a "blue screen of death" (BSOD) and getting stuck in a restarting state.
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Only Windows hosts were affected; Mac and Linux systems were not impacted.
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The issue affected various organizations globally, including banks, airlines, and other businesses.
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The company quickly identified and isolated the issue.
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A fix was deployed, and the problematic update was pulled.
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CrowdStrike is actively working with affected customers to resolve the problem.
- This was not a security incident or cyberattack.
Click here to see the whole perplexity.ai response.
The scope of the outage was surprising.
United, American, and Delta all called complete ground stops. Microsoft was hit. Public displays around the world showed the blue screen of death.
All because CrowdStrike pushed a global update. That patch caused every computer with CrowdStrike to crash. Even worse, these computers can only be fixed in person by an IT professional. Because it involves a Blue Screen of Death, IT can't just remote in to fix it.
It's probably the largest outage in history and has caused untold damage. It affected emergency services in some states and countries.
Even after a patch is issued, it may take days for things to return to normal, as each endpoint requires individual attention, and some systems might have suffered complete failures.
via XKCD
It's a healthy reminder that our 'robust' infrastructure isn't always so robust ... and that tech consolidation and concentration can have consequences.
While there are a seemingly infinite number of tech companies now, the infrastructure has consolidated into the hands of very few. We need to think about our digital resilience, not just in the systems we run, but in the globally connected systems and in the growing Internet of Things.
Does your business have all of its eggs in one basket? Does it have failsafes in case of an emergency?
As I observe the growing adoption of AI, I notice that people tend to emphasize its capabilities over its potential failures. In our increasingly interconnected and automated world, ensuring business continuity is more crucial than ever.
The 2.9 Trillion Dollar Drop
Last Friday was the stock market’s worst day since COVID.
The media says weak job reports and recessionary fears fueled it. Geopolitics might have played a part, too.
Over 2.9 Trillion Dollars got wiped out.
To visualize what happened, here is a market heatmap of the S&P 500 index stocks categorized by sectors and industries. Size represents market cap. There was very little green in a sea of red.
via FinViz
Last year, I asked if we would see a recession in 2024? Here is an excerpt from that post:
Yes, last week was potentially alarming. Even the ordinarily resilient tech giants took a hit.
With the unemployment rate reaching 4.3% in July, the three-month moving average is at least 0.5 percentage points above the minimum of the previous 12 months’ averages. This triggers the Sahm rule, which supposedly signals a recession. According to the rule, reaching the 0.5% threshold indicates a recession. When the jobless rate rises quickly, it suggests the economy is slumping.
But, even the inventor of the rule, Claudia Sahm, says the doomsday narrative may be overblown.
I’m not here to tell you that everything is sunshine and roses, but I am here to remind you that no indicator exists in a vacuum. While the negative performance is real, household income is still growing, and consumer spending and business investment remain resilient.
Not to mention that with graduation, there’s a massive increase in the workforce, which also impacts the numbers.
Recessions can build slowly - but come quickly - but as they build, there is time to react ... and even better - there is time to not ‘react’ but ‘respond’.
AI will likely impact the workforce, business, and eventually ... the economy.
I’ve learned that the market often feels random because you can’t predict events like global pandemics, threats, assassinations, or cybersecurity outages.
Over time, I’ve focussed less on guessing what will happen and more on responding faster and better to what happens.
With that said, I do have an opinion here. It’s an election year, and I suspect the government will push every button and pull every lever to boost the market leading into November. Even though markets and the economy are not the same thing, many voters believe they are. So, I would say this correction is perfectly timed ... and I anticipate a steady ramp-up so that people feel as good as possible about the economy when they vote.
What do you think is going to happen?
Posted at 09:48 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Ideas, Market Commentary, Television, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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