Tech

  • Linked – The Making of a Myth: Big Tech, Billionaires, and the Wild West

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

    When Big Tech bros talk about being the cowboys of the modern age, the myth is what they want you to believe. They want us to believe that they are so brilliant and creative that they succeed without assistance and will solve any problem without needing oversight or regulation. They’ll forget to mention that the Internet they are building on only exists because of government programs or that many of them have gotten plenty of handouts from government and private equity. They will also not like to be reminded of the many ways they have overstepped and done real harm.

  • Linked – Expectations Debt

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The term Expectation Debt fits a lot of what I was talking about earlier this year. This is a paragraph about Amazon, but you could write the same thing about Microsoft, Google, Zoom, and many other tech companies.

    Expectations were so high in 2021 that investors and employees had to achieve extraordinary things just to break even. When results were merely good, they felt terrible.

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    Microsoft Teams Collaborative Meeting Notes

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Recently, Microsoft released a preview feature, making meeting notes collaborative using MS Loop. As part of the M365 newsletter subscription I offered a deep dive into the eDiscovery implications of the tool and how it works, but there was more I wanted to say about the functionality of it outside of that. Hence, I’m writing a blog post about how I looked at these notes as a trainer and leader as opposed to how I looked at them as an eDiscovery professional.

  • Please Don’t Take Chances with Stalkerware

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

    Let me repeat what I’ve said before. If you are in an abusive situation and your partner has had access to your phone, leave it behind. If you suspect any of your devices had these tools installed, do not take any chances with them. Yes, getting a new phone and changing all of your passwords will be a pain in the ass. It will suck to set up a new email and change the default email address for all of your online accounts.

    It still beats getting tracked down by a violent ex-partner. Do not make light of this. This is life and death stuff. Trying to remove stalker ware incorrectly might kill people. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. Don’t take the chance.

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    Linked – Social Media Is Dying

    ByMike McBride Reading Time: 3 minutes

    While I would love to end this with a condemnation of venture capitalists and hedge fund managers, I think it’s important to point out that many of us are complicit. Fund managers seeking the best short-term profits for their investments run funds whose shareholders include most of us. When we log in and look at our IRA or 401(k) accounts, we look for how much the value has increased, not what makes the most sense for society. Our account balance looks a little nicer when a company lays off 10,000 employees and the stock price increases.

    It’s all entwined. To paraphrase Michael Corleone – “We’re all part of the same hypocrisy.”