Ged Carroll

Category: security | 保衛 | 정보 보안 | 情報セキュリティー

According to Wikipedia security can be defined:

Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems or any other entity or phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change. Security mostly refers to protection from hostile forces, but it has a wide range of other senses: for example, as the absence of harm (e.g. freedom from want); as the presence of an essential good (e.g. food security); as resilience against potential damage or harm (e.g. secure foundations); as secrecy (e.g. a secure telephone line); as containment (e.g. a secure room or cell); and as a state of mind (e.g. emotional security).

Back when I started writing this blog, hacking was something that was done against ‘the man’, usually as a political statement. Now breaches are part of organised crime’s day to day operations. The Chinese government so thoroughly hacked Nortel that all its intellectual property was stolen along with commercial secrets like bids and client lists. The result was the firm went bankrupt. Russian ransomware shuts down hospitals across Ireland. North Korean government sanctioned hackers robbed 50 million dollars from the central bank of Bangladesh and laundered it in association with Chinese organised crime.

Now it has spilled into the real world with Chinese covert actions, Russian contractors in the developing world and hybrid warfare being waged across central Europe and the middle east.

  • Machine learning powered services + more

    Machine learning powered services

    Intelligent Relations – Matt Muir nails this in his take down of their machine learning powered media relations platform – Vapid, largely-pointless busywork which despite its almost universal lack of import is nonetheless treated by its practitioners as somehow REALLY VITAL and with a reverence normally reserved for stuff that matters rather than with the disregard appropriate for an industry staffed largely by double-figure-IQ morons. Anyway, that’s all by way of preamble to the introduction of Intelligent Relations, a new company which is set to make PR even worse if you can imagine it. Intelligent Relations (it sounds…it sounds like an escort agency for the sort of people who bother applying to Mensa, is what it sounds like) is PR, but with AI! That’s right, AI! The MAGICAL SECRET SAUCE that makes EVERYTHING BETTER and definitely isn’t a sign that someone is attempting to sell you some magic beans! Just listen to this – “GPT-Powered Outreach, 24/7 analysis of all relevant public event data to identify opportunities and pitch your company’s stories faster than the competition…Relentless customized global outreach based on AI-ranked relevancy to your brand. Generate responses that start, nurture, and build personal relationships with media influencers. Put your execs and your company in the heart of the conversation. No agency. You own your relationships – not your PR firm…Precisely worded campaigns, aggressively scaled with technology. Faster than humans, more personal than email blasts.” So, er, you are outsourcing the writing of pitch emails, and followups, to a machine? Have, er, you read any non-tweaked GPT-3 generated copy recently? – All of this stuff about machine learning powered media relations reminded me of the start of my agency career.

    I was working with an agency that was part of the Interpublic Group. We were riding the technology boom of the mid-to-late 1990s. This was a series of booms that were inter-related.

    • Telecoms boom, came from deregulation, the rise of data services, globalisation and the internet
    • Enterprise software boom driven by Moore’s Law, the ability to interconnect systems and exchange data at rates previously unseen. There was a strong incentive to replace old systems due to concerns about the millennium bug
    • Mobile boom as GSM networks and their CDMA equivalent democratised the mobile phone and allowed for nascent data services
    • The dot.com boom as companies built service layers over the top of data networks. Much of the ambition was way ahead of where technology was
    • Hardware boom. Businesses and consumers needed to get online

    Our CEO at the time Larry Weber came over to the office in Covent Garden, met clients and held court. He turns around to the junior staff and tells them how soon they won’t have to worry about manually contacting journalists or compiling status reports. Instead, the contact work will be outsourced to the Philippines (thanks to the telecoms boom). And data that was entered once in the company intranet WeberWorks would through the power of Lotus Notes be diced into the reports that the clients needed.

    WeberWorks in its first iteration was a proof of concept, not a viable product. Though I believe that the successor agency Weber Shandwick stuck with developing the platform.

    22 years later and agency life faces much the same problems, except an algorithm is touted to replace Filipino call centre workers in this scenario. What does machine learning powered media relations have that a Filipino call centre doesn’t? How will the PR profession grow when the on-ramp for people to learn how it works is now taken over by a machine learning powered media relations service instead?

    A lot of PR technology is based on the expectation that (machine learning powered) content will be fed into a media sausage factory and coverage will come out. But relationships are important, as journalists get hundreds of pitches and press releases per day.

    Consumer behaviour

    Phoenix eyes’ on catwalk of mainland academy’s fashion gala draw fire for insulting China ｜Appledaily – Some netizens accused the university of humiliating China after a video of the event on YouTube showed that most of the models either had an eye shape known as phoenix eyes, or were using eyeliner to present the same appearance. The eye shape, which is identified by a slight upward lift at the outer corner of the eye, is considered a desirable facial feature. However, some people regard it as a harmful stereotype reinforced by Western culture and the fashion industry. One influential blogger on Weibo, China’s dominant social media platform, said that because this look conforms with the stereotypes of ethnic Asians it carries a meaning of serious humiliation – this might be what passes for woke in China. The story was originally published in the English version of the Apple Daily Hong Kong on June 21, 2021 three days before the paper closed down. I have linked to to a Wayback Machine archive of the article.

    Political trolling twice as popular as positivity, study suggests – BBC News – unsurprising as taps into system 1 thinking

    Economics

    Competition and concentration | Financial Times – The 1980s financialisation of the US economy created a mindset that manufacturing did not matter — and that it should therefore be shifted to lower-cost labour markets. The high value-added stuff, including R&D, would remain onshore. It didn’t turn out like that. Like any other activity in life, manufacturers learn by doing, which means that the most effective innovation usually takes place alongside production. That’s why so many of America’s most impressive companies, including Intel, shifted a lot of their R&D to China – great take on globalisation here. It also gives a sense of where the FT’s view is on the process

    Private equity ‘raid’ on UK companies sparks furious row in City | Financial Times – best quote in the comments ‘The British should be relieved to have their assets stripped by relatively familiar, relatively transparent organizations. It may be the Chinese next.’

    The Evolution of Corruption in China | Foreign Affairs – corruption comes in distinct flavors, each exerting different social and economic harms. The public is familiar with three main types. The first is petty theft: police officers shaking down people on the street, for example. The second is grand theft: national elites siphoning off massive sums from public treasuries into private accounts overseas. The third is speed money: petty bribes paid to regular officials to bypass red tape and delays and grease the wheels of bureaucracy. All three types are illegal, vociferously condemned, and rampant in poor countries. But corruption comes in another, more elusive variety: access money. In this kind of transaction, capitalists offer high-stakes rewards to powerful officials in exchange not just for speed but also for access to exclusive, lucrative privileges, including cheap credit, land grants, monopoly rights, procurement contracts, tax breaks, and the like. Access money can manifest in illegal forms, such as massive bribes and kickbacks, but it also exists in perfectly legal forms – I was thinking of the favoured firms during the British empire and the chaebols during the Park presidency in South Korea. The chumocracy of UK politics is closer to speed money

    Ideas

    Digital Addiction Hunt Allcott, Matthew Gentzkow, and Lena Song (NBER.org working paper) – Many have argued that digital technologies such as smartphones and social media are addictive. We develop an economic model of digital addiction and estimate it using a randomized experiment. Temporary incentives to reduce social media use have persistent effects, suggesting social media are habit forming. Allowing people to set limits on their future screen time substantially reduces use, suggesting self-control problems. Additional evidence suggests people are inattentive to habit formation and partially unaware of self-control problems. Looking at these facts through the lens of our model suggests that self-control problems cause 31 percent of social media use. – or in other words social media is like big food, the illegal drugs industry, alcohol, tobacco and gambling (PDF)

    Innovation

    Losing sight of the Future – Noahpinion – interesting article but the author forgets about energy density as an issue in their own predictions whilst mentioning it as a flaw in prior ones

    Marketing

    The fashion marketing shake-up: As Instagram, Facebook costs surge, where next? | Vogue Business – marketing inflation is hitting the fashion industry as platform and influencer costs surge, but sales don’t. More online related content here.

    North Face Owner Pulled Xinjiang Criticism, Then Reinstated It – WSJ – VF Brands struggling to navigate divergent Chinese and western markets. Its not been a good week for VF Brands as the Futurelight logo court case with Futura is bring a lot of unwelcome attention to the North Face brand and may blow on to its Supreme brand.

    McDonald’s, Wendy’s Cut Back Value Meals, Focus on Pricier Food – this is partly inflation. But I think that they are working an angle to squeeze premium burger brands: Five Guys, Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK), Byron Burger and similar

    Retailing

    S.Korea retailer E-Mart buys eBay’s S.Korean business for $3 bln | Reuters – purchased by Shinsegae – part of Samsung chaebol

    Technology

    Panasonic defends $7bn Blue Yonder deal after questions over price | Financial Times – interesting that Panasonic bought Blue Yonder. Blue Yonder is a supply chain software provider

    Wireless

    EE to reintroduce Europe roaming charges in January – BBC News – EE, which is part of BT Group, previously said it had no plans to reintroduce roaming charges in Europe. – No plans meant that they didn’t have their act together at that time, typical BT in other words

  • Chanel + more news

    Chanel

    Chanel invested $1.1 billion during a pandemic. Here’s where and why | Vogue Business – new client-facing tools like concierge shopping services and an app linking existing clients with fashion advisors, store upgrades, including the purchase of its New Bond Street store in London, a new fashion, watches and fine jewellery store in Beverly Hills planned for next year, a new Paris manufacturing hub for artisans called 19M, creative collections and an ongoing commitment to sustainability – Chanel has been making some smart moves, when most other brands; even luxury ones were hunkered down. Chanel is looking to come out of the blocks strong. The new manufacturing hub is going to drive innovation and creativity at Chanel for years. The new Chanel French manufacturing facility is a world away from Burberry and Balenciaga manufacturing in China. I think that the Chanel investment in real world retail indicates the continued importance of experience in luxury retailing. It is also interesting that Chanel wasn’t making moves into casual luxury a la Kenzo, Dior or Louis Vuitton. This Chanel development will be worth keeping an eye on.

    Consumer behaviour

    George Packer: The Four Americas – The Atlantic – the sunny narrative of Free America shone on, its policies eroded the way of life of many of its adherents. The disappearance of secure employment and small businesses destroyed communities. The civic associations that Tocqueville identified as the antidote to individualism died with the jobs. When towns lost their Main Street drugstores and restaurants to Walgreens and Wendy’s in the mall out on the highway, they also lost their Rotary Club and newspaper—the local institutions of self-government. This hollowing-out exposed them to an epidemic of aloneness, physical and psychological. Isolation bred distrust in the old sources of authority—school, church, union, bank, media. – this is a really great read

    Government, which did so little for ordinary Americans, was still the enemy, along with “governing elites.” But for the sinking working class, freedom lost whatever economic meaning it had once had. It was a matter of personal dignity, identity. Members of this class began to see trespassers everywhere and embraced the slogan of a defiant and armed loneliness: Get the fuck off my property. Take this mask and shove it. It was the threatening image of a coiled rattlesnake: “Don’t tread on me.”

    Social class in America – Noahpinion – worthwhile reading alongside George Packer’s essay

    Why “lying flat,” a niche Chinese millennial meme, alarms Beijing — Quartz – Chinese youngsters, or in general the working population, have experienced huge societal and political changes in the past nine years, [leading them to realize] that there is neither the possibility for initiating a revolution nor the freedom of expression. Under such a condition, lying down has become the only option,” Wu told Quartz.

    Why I Have 75 DVDs and Blu-Rays on Top of My 5 Streaming Subs – As a Reddit user named Ben, who goes by Cinema Adherent and says he’s collected 5,000 discs, told me recently, “With services like Netflix you are always at the whim of whatever they could license for the cheapest this month. Good luck finding what you want to watch when you want to watch it.” – its the same with streaming services. I have a mix of discs and streaming subs too

    I think that this is the interesting start of something: How Secondhand Clothes Sellers Are Driving Conversations Around China’s Recycling Economy

    Culture

    [Letter from Los Angeles] The Anxiety of Influencers, By Barrett Swanson | Harper’s Magazine – this reads more like something in a Cory Doctorow short story than real life. But its real life

    Japanese comic riles China’s nationalists for giving revered Mao a zombie look｜Appledaily – The offending images were created in the third episode of Arakawa’s “Raiden-18” series. Mao, a former leader of the Communist Party, came across as a corpse that had a spell stuck to his forehead saying “where are the toilets,” comic illustrations circulating on the web showed. It appeared that Arakawa, who had visited China before, had created a satire to bemoan the lack of public toilets in the country. – this is brilliant

    Ideas

    How Xi’s China came to resemble Tsarist Russia | Financial Times – the last ruling Communist party of a major country has morphed into a conservative reactionary party bent on preserving the power of state capitalist elites and advancing a distinctly 19th century form of ethno-nationalist imperialism – true, but this would sting in China

    Intellectual property

    Kiwi wars: the golden fruit fuelling a feud between New Zealand and China | New Zealand | The Guardian – “It’s very naive,” says Gao. “You are relying on local authorities to protect your interests. And if they don’t, what do you do?” It is clear that the cultivation of Sungold in China is happening with the tacit permission of local governments, he says: “Such large-scale growing … it’s not individual.” Beijing may feel a degree of pressure to protect its global image, but state and local government officials are far less likely to be driven by China’s international obligations or reputation, he says. “Local government officials do not care,” he says. “. They don’t care about a free trade agreement between New Zealand and China. You have very little leverage to really get local authorities on your side, because they are not on your side. They are on the side of local growers.” – New Zealand’s China policy failure in a microcosm

    Media

    Behind the scenes at China TV: soft power and state propaganda | Financial Times 

    Mediatel: Mediatel News: The week in media: only one winner from the GBNews ad boycott – the aggressive and bullying manner in which campaigners have urged brands to boycott GBNews is worrying. Such fanatical behaviour has become an unhealthy feature of social media – ever quicker to blame and punish, but ever slower to be considerate and patient. 

    While many brands quickly pulled their ads off GBNews in response to the boycott, one advertiser had the bravery and integrity to say no to these demands and explain why. 

    The Co-op – hardly a bastion of “hate” given its longstanding associations with community organisations, education and the Labour Party – already had a policy in place after consulting its members about its advertising approach. 

    It made a statement reminding us of its approach and its three principles: 

    • We will not seek to affect the editorial independence of publications or channels; 
    • We will not undermine the commercial value of our society for our members; and 
    • We will ensure our values and principles are clear and undiminished regardless of surrounding content. 

    How refreshing that a brand was able to show a) it has already been thinking about this issue for a while; b) it took full responsibility for placing the ad on GBNews; and c) it has a clear regard for the importance of news media and a diversity of opinions

    Zhihu’s refreshing perspective on Gaokao & behind China’s cravings for vegan meat – Zhihu is a Q&A platform, not a million miles away from Quora in terms of depth and breadth of content. I am not sure how this Zhihu content will be seen by the party

    Security

    China links pose a threat to academic freedom in Britain | Financial Times – UK universities don’t seem to feel any societal obligation to the UK beyond existing and carrying on growing. They have expanded campuses into China. They benefit form ‘brand UK’ but feel no obligation to it. Rather like multinational companies before them. Universities have no shareholders to be beholden to, unlike Apple or similar.

    UK universities freed of societal ties have become rational creatures. Overseas students pay more money than British equivalents. There is an active incentive to not have British youth. Add in the fact that universities have a lot of real estate investments to support and you can understand why foreign students are much more desirable for these institutions from a financial point of view.

    There is a wider question over why universities seem to have a luxury pricing model, with the cost of education climbing much faster than inflation – yet if you look at universities the whole non-tenured academics mess you have to ask where did the money go. This happening in both the US and UK. Finally, what’s going to happen when the UK has as poor a bench of university graduates and post graduates as it has had for the past few decades in vocational education?

    More than a billion data items stolen in Alibaba leak｜Appledaily – more security related content here.

    He Warned Apple About the Risks in China. Then They Became Reality. – The New York Times – At one point, the Chinese government asked for the computer code underpinning the security of iPhones, according to a former Apple executive familiar with the request. To comply, Apple would have had to create a so-called back door for the Chinese authorities to bypass an iPhone’s security, similar to what the Federal Bureau of Investigation had asked for in 2016 — and Apple rebuffed the request. In China, Apple also pushed back and persuaded the government that it didn’t need the data, according to the executive. – instead, all Apple China customer data in iCloud is on Chinese government company servers

    Taiwan

    CTL fined over faulty beneficiary disclosure: FSC – Taipei Times – what’s interesting about this story is the connection to Xiao Jianhua. Xiao was snatched and smuggled out of his apartment in the Four Seasons in Hong Kong back in 2017. Xiao hasn’t been seen since, but has been rumoured to be ‘helping‘ authorities unwind his business Tomorrow Holdings. Using one of his companies to do secret Chinese state work isn’t beyond the realm of possibility

    Techno-optimism

    Theses on Techno-Optimism | LibrarianShipwreck 

    THE CCP’S NEXT CENTURY Expanding economic control, digital governance and national security | MERICS – (PDF). What is apparent is that China’s communist party is betting on techno-optimism. Technology and innovation becomes distinctly political, which explains everything from Huawei to politicians deciding which mathematics lecturers get tenure in Chinese universities.

    Technology

    It will be interesting to see how Khan’s appointment will lead to lasting change amongst ‘big tech’ companies – the FANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google), Apple and Microsoft – Tech antitrust pioneer Lina Khan will lead FTC, reports say – The Verge 

  • 6G development + more things

    6G development

    Japan teams up with Finland on 6G development – Nikkei Asia the consortium on 6G development features a number of familiar names. On the Japanese side the following organisations are involved:  includes NTT, NTT DOCOMO, KDDI, SoftBank, Rakuten Mobile and the University of Tokyo. I was a bit surprised not to see NEC here as they are Japan’s domestic telecoms equipment manufacturer. From Finland you have the following 6G development partners: University of Oulu and Nokia. (Paywall)

    Culture

    Part one of what is due to be a three part podcast: oral history of The Avalanches – Since I left you 

    Ethics

    The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax — ProPublica – validation of what everyone suspected. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a strategic leak by the Biden administration

    Finance

    China’s bid for digital-yuan sphere raises red flags at G-7 – Nikkei Asia – total information awareness of global markets, surveillance and money that can be invalidated at the push of a key….

    Indian tycoons surpass Chinese tech moguls in global rich list | Financial Times – which says more about the Chinese government clipping the laissez faire approach to its tech entrepreneurs

    Luxury

    Why Shenzhen – not Hong Kong – is luxury’s new golden ticket – only Hong Kong’s property oligarchs will be sad to see this happen

    Marketing

    ‘How the hell have we allowed this to happen?’ Rory Sutherland on creative devaluation | Campaign Live – I think that its down to a wider marketing focus on performance marketing rather than brand building

    Olympics: India drops Chinese kit sponsor ahead of Tokyo Games | Olympics News | Al Jazeera – not great for Li-Ning

    Media

    The underground zines that kept self-expression alive in Mao’s China – The Boston Globe – Despite Beijing’s tight control of the printed word and its dissemination, a new and diffuse network of underground printers — low-tech, affordable, remarkably flexible, and incredibly hard to police — springs up. Equipped with nothing more than Chinese typewriters, mimeograph machines, and stencil duplicators, underground publishers mass-produce an untold quantity of materials for a vast and diverse readership.

    Security

    How to Turn Off Amazon Sidewalk | WIRED – For the Echo family of speakers, open the Alexa mobile app and go to More, Settings, Account Settings, Amazon Sidewalk and choose Disable. In the Ring app, go to the Control Center, Amazon Sidewalk, Disable, Confirm.

    Technology

    iPhone? AirPods? MacBook? You Live in Apple’s World. Here’s What You Are Missing. – WSJ – (paywall) more Apple related content here.

    Web of no web

    Finnish Group Readies Non-cellular Technology for IoT – EE Times Europe

  • George Gilderism + more things

    George Gilderism

    An interesting debate on what I would term “George Gilderism” of the techno-utopia is just around the corner versus the concern that innovation is slowing. George Gilder is the author of Telecosm; which encapsulated techno-utopian optimism at its peak in the mid-1990s; just as the web was coming into its own. ‘George Gilderism’ has since been brought to issues such photo and video imaging through to a blockchain based web.

    I’ve been making my way slowly through The Rise and Fall of American Growth which makes a convincing argument against ‘George Gilderism’. Stewart Brand in his work The Whole Earth Discipline makes a tepid case for ‘George Gilderism’. Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants suggests that technological progress almost has a will to happen. And that will or technium as he puts it is running at increasing cadence which seems to counter the idea of slowing innovation. Kelly doesn’t make a compelling case for ‘George Gilderism’ either, technological progress brings its own problems. Innovation runs at different speeds at different times, in different fields.

    Here’s Intel executive Stacy Smith on what would have happened to the car industry if it had been able to reap the benefits of innovation in the same what the semiconductor field had:

    If you apply the same metric to something like gas mileage, it says you could drive to the sun from Earth on a single gallon of gas.’

    If there were a Moore’s Law in the car industry, you could drive to the sun on a gallon of gas – MarketWatch (April 1, 2017)

    Noah Smith makes the case for optimism here: Answering the Techno-Pessimists (complete) – Noahpinion and the Applied Divinity Studies blog makes the case for the great stagnation – Isolated Demands for Rigour in New Optimism | Applied Divinity Studies

    Finance

    The rise of crypto laundries: how criminals cash out of bitcoin | Financial Times – so it’s a threat to offshore financial industry? There are so many things wrong with cryptocurrencies, but this seems like an odd flaw to pick on.

    Share price ‘pop’ in US IPOs falls by half | Financial Times – this could be a good thing, as it shows that IPOs are closer to being optimally priced rather than management teams leaving a large amount of money on the table

    FMCG

    Nestlé document says majority of its food portfolio is unhealthy | Financial Times – they’re ok in moderation, but this will bring in a lot of shareholder pressure

    Ideas

    We Need More Public Space for Teen Girls – Bloomberg – “We had nothing to do and there was nowhere to go. So we’d go and hang out on the swings in the early evening and chat as the light slowly faded into dusk. It was better than sitting around at home.” – but why are spaces failing now where they didn’t in the past? I talked this through with a few friends of both genders who thought it odd. It sounded more like a law enforcement issue around public safety than a space issue. I could see an argument for a safe online space, for girls, boys and everyone in between – but that comes with its own complexity. I thought that the problem was that kids are the PlayStation generation or have their lives stuffed with activities by middle class parents.

    BUSINESS: Warren Buffett sinks climate measure, says world will adapt – www.eenews.net – completely missed this when it originally came out. On a related note I was listening to a podcast interview with Niall Ferguson promoting his book Doom and he mentioned that we have seen remarkably little volcanic activity over the past 200 years. When that picked up again, we could be dealing with global cooling. (This also explains why when I was a kid; the concern wasn’t global warming, but a new ice age). But even at that time, although the media missed it; the general consensus that carbon dioxide causing global warming was a bigger effect than short lived particles in the air reducing sun and causing global cooling. Even Richard Turco’s A Path Where No Man Thought which posited the idea of a nuclear winter has been proven wrong in subsequent analysis. There may be some cooling effect but not the kind of effect envisaged by massive nuclear conflicts.

    Xi Jinping on external propaganda and discursive power – China Neican 内参 – aka more and better Wolf Warrior. It was interested that this was misinterpreted by many people as a softening in tone by China. The reality is that the CPC views everything in terms of struggle, which is means their strategic approach is like a ratchet. It was interesting to read alongside the below article in The Spectator

    China is not as strong as it appears | The Spectator – The truth is that China is not as strong as it appears. As the Stanford scholar Elizabeth Economy points out, the country spent $216 billion on domestic security in 2019 — three times its expenditure of a decade before, and even more than what it spends on the People’s Liberation Army. Yet if Beijing’s internal problems continue to get worse, it will fall back on nationalism as a source of legitimacy. This will not be a comfortable experience for the West. ‘Communist China is bad, Han nationalist China will be worse,’ – the party is already validated by Han nationalism and has been a good while, so this worst case scenario is already here.

    Intellectual property

    Maine man sues his company, claiming it allowed Chinese access to US trade secrets | War Is Boring

    Luxury

    Busan’s Rich Have Only Malls to Spend Money on – The Chosun Ilbo

    Marketing

    Miller Lite, New Balance team up on ‘dad shoe’ beer koozie | Marketing Dive – Through the Shoezie, Miller Lite is hoping to appeal to the middle-aged men who represent an important cohort of beer drinkers and those who embrace dad fashion, which has become a trend as consumers retro looks. New Balance’s 624 Trainer — the model on which the koozie is based — is referred to as the classic “Dad Shoe” in the announcement. DDB San Francisco organized a modeling session for the Shoezie in which dads were placed in typical dad scenarios, such as cleaning the garage and searing a steak. By combining these elements of dad culture, Miller Lite is taking a lighthearted, relatable approach to Father’s Day

    Modern brands have forgotten that good ad slogans work (rest and play) | Business | The Times – Lloyds Banking Group, Pepsi and the food division of Marks & Spencer have brought some or all of their marketing in-house, partly as a cost-saving exercise. But partly, as Richard Warren, Lloyds’ head of marketing, claims: “No one can write in ad agencies any more.” Ouch. – So much here in factors causing this move. Relentless cost cutting has reduced agency talent bench, if you’re 40 you’re done. Agency focus on disruption and innovation over craft because of the media buying profits offered from online.

    Retailing

    How the Depop generation thinks | Vogue Business – so a lot of similarities with earlier generations at their age then. the Etsy acquisition of Depop is more about consolidating crafting and thrifting rather than a generational play per se.

    Tymbals – The edge @ ROI – The latest wonder to be rolled out of Nigel Scott’s RoboVC investment model. The DTC Dropship Arbitrage for evaluating the relative efficiency of eCommerce biz models

    Security

    Polish trial begins in Huawei-linked China espionage case | Reuters – Huawei, which fired Wang after his arrest but has helped finance his legal fees, told Reuters in a statement last month that its activities are “in accordance with the highest standards of transparency and adherence to laws and regulation.” – some interesting bits in the article. First of all, Huawei picking up a good deal of the legal fees for an employee that they ‘fired’. Secondly, Wang was interested in tapping of military optical fibres in Poland, which hints at technology theft and the depth of military and intelligence alliance between Russia and China

    Technology

    Huawei’s HarmonyOS: “Fake it till you make it” meets OS development | Ars Technica – All the evidence points to HarmonyOS being built on top of Android; but with Android mentions removed. Knowing Huawei they are probably violating GPL as well

    RISC vs. CISC Is the Wrong Lens for Comparing Modern x86, ARM CPUs – ExtremeTech

    Telecoms

    Bandwidth Boosts Could Help Unclog Space Communications | EE Times 

    Web of no web

    Killer drone ‘hunted down a human target’ without being told to – The March 2020 attack was in Libya and perpetrated by a Kargu-2 quadcopter drone produced by Turkish military tech company STM “during a conflict between Libyan government forces and a breakaway military faction led by Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army,” the Star reports, adding: “The Kargu-2 is fitted with an explosive charge and the drone can be directed at a target in a kamikaze attack, detonating on impact.” – At the start of my agency career, autonomous software agents would aid the consumer. I had a German dot com client called DealTime who had a Windows-only app for consumers. It would go out and find the best price on the web for items that they where interested in and keep an eye on those prices over time. Now we have Amazon and suicide drones.

  • Digital hucksters + more news

    Digital Hucksters

    The Digital Era: A Golden Age for Hucksters | EE Times – interesting take on UX. Digital hucksters use dark patterns and behavioural understanding to sell to customers. These customers are looking to mediate their interactions online rather than with a real sales person. On a semi-related note, check out the ludricous experience of needing an app to order in a pub – Interesting post on ordering in a UK pub. More ethics related content here.

    Hong Kong

    More American Chamber of Commerce members say they are considering leaving Hong Kong, with many citing national security law | South China Morning Post – numbers have doubled compared to last August. This might not be a bad thing from the perspective of the Chinese government, but it is also likely to drive further trade decoupling

    Luxury

    The evergreen nature of preppy style. A classic example of everything old is new. The main thing of interest for me is the way Princess Diana has been resuscitated as as a fashion icon over the past year or so – Buy Yuppie Scum: ’90s Rich-Guy Gear Is in Style | GQ

    Stocks as luxury consumption, I imagine that this might start to hit jewellery sales as well – Young Korean Couples Are Gifting Each Other Tesla Stocks, Not Flowers 

    Discover VS Series & World of SK-II | ChangeDestiny | SK-II City

    Media

    Brands don’t need to avoid violence – just make sure it’s right for your audience | Campaign – guessing Xaxis must be having brand safety related issues

    Security

    UK to ban default passwords for smart TVs, speakers to boost security | Reuters – this is big if it gets more widely adopted. Not sure how this will deal with all the products that are bought on Amazon Marketplace etc though

    The Crypto AG scandal rumbles on – Swiss spy chief exits after reports of row over CIA-linked firm | Reuters 

    The digital detectives searching for North Korea’s disappeared | Financial Times

    Technology

    No sooner has Elon Musk shown a decline of interest in bitcoin due to its energy impact than this news comes out of Microsoft – Microsoft is shutting down its Azure Blockchain Service | ZDNet 

    The lack of semiconductor manufacturing in Europe by Jan-Peter Kleinhans of Shiftung Neue Varantwortung eV – Could they be driven by pushes from the current fabs owners not to have any competition?

    Daimler decentralises spare parts production – via 3D printer 

    Breakthrough for room temperature quantum computing | EE Europe 

    Google has been designing a new category of chips for their own needs and has even developed its own tools used to help in the chip design process. This software is used in conjunction with Mentor Graphics EDA software – Google BigChip? | Digits to Dollars