Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 02/24 – There Actually IS A Tech Angle To Ukraine

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

There actually IS a tech angle to what is going on in Ukraine, though for all of our sakes, let’s just hope there’s not TOO much of one. Stablecoins are where it’s at in crypto at the moment. Not one, but two new flagship phones to tell you about. And the interesting AI details behind Zuck’s latest Metaverse presentation. Sponsors: NewRelic.com/techmeme Links: Ukrainian gov't sites disrupted by DDoS, wiper malware discovered (ZDNet) Stablecoins Soar in Value as Everything Else in Crypto Shrinks (Bloomberg) Oppo’s Find X5 Pro flagship is finally official (The Verge) The Motorola Edge Plus aims for full flagship status — with a price to match (The Verge) A Meta prototype lets you build virtual worlds by describing them (The Verge) Mark Zuckerberg wants to build a voice assistant that blows Alexa and Siri away (Recode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Thursday, February 24th, 2022. I'm Brian McCullough today. There actually is a tech angle to what's going on in Ukraine, though for all of our sakesh, let's hope there's not too much of one. Stable coins are where it's at in crypto at the moment. Not one, but two new flagship phones to tell you about, and the interesting AI details behind Zuck's latest metaverse presentation. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Well, it looks like war in Ukraine is kicking up. off, and as I want to do in these sorts of situations, let me, of course, stress that I have no background in geopolitical or military affairs, even when it comes to tech, nor do I believe in just

finding the tech angle, in quotes, for whatever the big story of the day is. But I will point out, more so than a lot of geopolitical stories over the last 25 years of the modern tech era, tech might end up being very much a big part of this particular story. Sadly, yes, cyber security experts have warned for months that this war, should it come, could be asymmetrical, but in the sense that cyber battlefields might be the major battlefields outside of Ukraine. Already, several Ukrainian government sites have been disrupted by DDoS attacks, and researchers have discovered new data-wiper malware installed on hundreds of Ukrainian machines. quoting ZDNet. The websites for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Internal Affairs,

security service known as the SPU, and Cabinet of Ministers, all faced outages confirmed both by the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection and Netblocks, an organization tracking internet outages around the world. Prevat Bank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine, and Oshod Bank, the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, both dealt with outages to Later in the day, researchers at ESET discovered a new data wiper malware used in Ukraine. ESET telemetry allegedly showed that the wiper was installed on hundreds of machines. The wiper abuses legitimate drivers from the ease US or eases partition master software in order to corrupt data. As a final step, the wiper reboots the computer, ESET said.

In one of the targeted organizations, the wiper was dropped via the default domain policy GPO, meaning that attackers had likely taken control of the active directory server, end quote. As many have noted online, the attack began around 4 p.m. local time, right as Ukraine's parliament began to discuss a state of emergency declaration, the 30-day state of emergency was approved by the Ukrainian government as both U.S. and NATO warned that a Russian invasion was likely. Russian forces moved into eastern parts of the country over the last two days, end quote. So add to that the fact that major sanctions against Russia by the West are likely coming, and so a reminder to all CISOs out there that asymmetrical lashing out

by Russian-backed cyber warriors could likely be coming as well. Quoting Nicole Perlroth on Twitter, remember, the internet has collapsed distance. We are no longer an island protected by two oceans. While there are no specific threats to the U.S., any retaliation to sanctions will likely come in the form of cyber attacks. Get your house in order now, end quote. I've also been reading continued drumbeats of people talking about whether or not simple things like banning software updates for Russian users might degrade Russian cyber defense capabilities. Meanwhile, the adjacent tech spheres have news as well. Bitcoin overnight fell 8% to a one-month low. Ether dropped 12%. And just generally, there was a crypto crash across most coins, wiping $150 billion off the

crypto market in the last 24 hours, which begs the questions that I've asked before. Isn't crypto a hedge against inflation? No, apparently. Isn't crypto a safe haven for assets in times of geopolitical turmoil? Again, no, apparently. Crypto can only go up in times of relative stability, it seems like, lately. Also, Twitter says it has mistakenly suspended around a dozen accounts posting about Russian military movements near the Ukrainian border and reinstated some of those accounts. The first thing that I check every morning is the English soccer news. And there, the big story this morning was that Manchester City's Ukrainian defender, Alexander Jinchenko, claimed that Instagram had deleted his post telling Russian President Vladimir Putin, quote, I hope you die the most

painful suffering death creature, end quote. But look, one more very personal tech angle to consider here. It's not unusual for startups, especially at their early stages, to have remote engineering teams in places like Ukraine. So there's likely some serious disruption for a lot of companies from that angle this morning, and conversely, if you have Russian-based teams, you might want to start preparing for the bite of sanctions, which may be crafted in such a way that U.S. or Western-based companies are forbidden from working with Russian-based entities entirely. One slightly related, interesting bit of data I saw this morning. According to new research, stable coin market caps have reached around $180 billion, up from a mere $38 billion, about a year ago,

as Bitcoin, Ether, and all the other coins fluctuate wildly in price. Something, something, is this a flight to safety? Quoting Bloomberg. The hottest spot in crypto right now is coins with prices that don't move. Stable coins, cryptocurrencies which peg their value to assets such as the U.S. dollar, have ballooned in size over the past few months as Bitcoin and other coins whipsaw. The total market capitalization of stable coins currently stands around $180 billion, up from

roughly $38 billion a year ago, coined. metrics data compiled by the block show. By comparison, the total crypto universe is largely stagnant over the past year. The surge in market value shows that crypto traders are effectively moving their holdings to cash, according to James Malcolm of UBS. Bitcoin prices have collapsed by about 50% since mid-November, with many smaller coins posting even bigger declines. Rather than moving money off crypto trading exchanges by converting back into fiat currencies, a cumbersome and potentially costly process, it's easier for investors to simply weight out the volatility in stable coins, Malcolm said. There's risk aversion which creates flight to relative safety, said Malcolm, head of foreign exchange

and crypto research at UBS. You park your money temporarily without taking it out of the ecosystem and all the costs and hassle that involves, end quote. That's especially evident Thursday amid the turmoil in Ukraine with investors avoiding riskier and less liquid assets such as Bitcoin and turning to traditional refuges like gold. That's been a boon for stable coins. While Tether is the largest stable coin with a market cap of $80 billion, USD coin is quickly gaining share. Total market value there stands at $47 billion compared to under $6 billion one year ago. If USDC and USDT continue growing at similar rates as so far in 2022, USDC will become the largest stable coin by market cap at the end of June. arcane research wrote in a report, end quote. So, as spoken about just there in the piece,

stock market analysts have long used sector rotation as a way to gauge what is going on in the markets. Remember my 52-week and all-time high stock screeners, which three months ago was highlighting things like Asana and Twilio, but is now all about stuff like Procter and Gamble and oil companies, it's because investors have rotated their money to sectors they see as safer or less volatile for the time being, but really, flights to safety mean simply selling stuff and sitting in cash. Will we someday soon see analysts gauging crypto market health based on the percentage of money rotating in and out of stable coins? Opo has unveiled its latest flagship phone called the FindX5 Pro, which sports a 6.7 inch display, an updated design, the usual Snapdragon 8-Gen

processor, a 5,000-m-a-amp-hour battery, and 12 gigabytes of RAM. The release and pricing on this phone are TBC, however, quoting the verge. The FindX5 Pro is a fairly iterative follow-up to last year's FindX3 Pro, but that was a great phone, and after spending more than a week with a not-yet final version of its successor, I'm expecting the same to hold true. The FindX5 Pro's design plays off the curved unibody approach of the X3 Pro. This time around the back panel is ceramic, which when combined with the abstract shape of the camera bump gives the white unit I've been testing a futuristic Star Wars Stormtrooper-esque feel. It's an eye-catching device with impressive build quality. It looks better in person than I expected.

That unusual camera bump has a little less going on than the FindX3 pros. The ringlight equipped microscope camera is no more, and Oppo is settling for the same 50-mixel IMX-766. in its primary and ultra-wide cameras, as well as a 13 megapixel telephoto. That microscope camera wasn't exactly an essential feature, but it's disappointing not to see it replaced with something more useful, like the sort of periscope telephoto camera that Apo itself pioneered. While the main 50-mixel camera sensor is the same, the lens in front of it is slightly faster at F1.7,

and Apo says it now uses more glass than the previous all-plastic optics. The lens also now has five-axis stabilization. Apo is talking up the Hazelblad partnership as well as its in-house Mary Silicon X imaging NPU2, which is claiming to deliver big improvements for low-light HDR video recording in particular with a dedicated 4K Ultra Night Video mode. I'll reserve judgment on the results until I have a release version of the software, since Apo tells me the next update will specifically address camera performance. Elsewhere, you get the typical flagship specs you'd expect this year.

Pricing and release dates for the FindX5 Pro will be. vary by region, end quote. And another flagship, two-in-one day. Motorola has debuted the $999 Edge Plus with a 6.7-inch display and up to 144-hhertz refresh rate, also optional smart stylus, and 30-watt wired charging, all available in the coming months, quoting the verge. The Motorola Edge X30 announced in China at the end of last year is coming to the U.S. as the Motorola Edge Plus, or the 30 Pro in Europe and other markets. It comes with higher-end specs than 2021's Motorola Edge offered, starting with the Android flagship Chipset du jour, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

While Motorola appears to have addressed some of our complaints about that mid-range device, this is also a much more expensive phone at $999, setting the bar that much higher for its feature set. Motorola is also offering a new smart stylus, sold separately as a bundle with a case design to hold it. It's an active stylus in the vein of Samsung's S-pen that can do more than the simple passive stylus sold with phones like Motorola's MotoG stylus.

Like the S-pen, it's sensitive to pressure and can be used as a remote control for certain actions without touching the pen to the screen. Motorola says it will announce pricing and availability for the stylus and case in the coming weeks. There are two 50-machixel cameras on the Edge Plus's rear panel, an F-1.8 standard wide with optical image stabilization and an F2.2. Ultra-wide. The main camera should offer improved autofocus, which was a weak spot for the 2021 Edge. The third lens on the phone's rear triple camera array is a two-megapixel depth sensor of questionable utility. On the front, there's a 60 megapixel selfie camera. If nothing else, the Edge Plus is another high-end Android

option in the U.S., where we have precious few devices to choose from at the moment. The Edge Plus is available unlocked for $100 off for a limited time. It will be offered from Verizon and other carriers in the coming months, according to Motorola, end quote. Finally today, once more unto the metaverse, dear friends, once more. Mark Zuckerberg showcased a concept for voice-controlled VR spaces generated by AI at a live event yesterday, well, live in the Metaverse, also outlining plans for a universal language translator and more, quoting the verge. Meta is testing an artificial intelligence system that lets people build parts of virtual worlds by describing them, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off a prototype at a live event today.

Proof of the concept called BuilderBot could eventually draw more people into Meta's Horizon Metaverse virtual reality experiences. It could also advance creative AI tech that powers machine-generated art. In a pre-recorded demo video, Zuckerberg walked viewers through the process of making a virtual space with BuilderBot, starting with commands like, let's go to the beach, which prompts the bot to create a cartoonish 3D landscape of sand and water around him. Zuckerberg describes this as all AI generated. Later, commands range from broad demands like creating an island to extremely specific requests, like adding auto-cumulus clouds and, in a joke poking fun at himself, a model of a hydrofoil. They also include playing sound effects like tropical music,

which Zuckerberg suggests is coming from a boombox that Builder Bot created, although it could also have been generated background audio. The video doesn't specify whether Builderbot draws on a limited library of human-created models or if the AI plays a role in generating the designs. Several AI projects have demonstrated image generation based on text descriptions, including OpenAI's doll E, Nvidia's Gaugan 2, and VQGAN Plus clip, which I have no idea how to pronounce, as well as more accessible applications like Dream by Wombo. But these well-known, known projects involve creating 2D images, sometimes very surreal ones, without interactive components, although some researchers are working on 3D object generation. As described by meta and shown in the

demo, Builderbot appears to be using voice input to add 3D objects that users can walk around and meta is aiming for more ambitious interactions. You'll be able to create nuanced worlds to explore and share experiences with others with just your voice. Zuckerberg promised during the event keynote. Meta made several other AI announcements during the event, including plans for a universal language translator, a new version of a conventional AI system, and an initiative to build new translation models for languages without large written datasets, end quote. This is all related to meta developing what it calls karaoke, spelled C-A-I-R-A-O-K-E, a self-supervised learning AI neural model used to power a voice assistant for the company's AR and VR products.

quoting Vox. One of META's main goals is to develop advanced voice assistant AI technology, think Alexa or Siri, but smarter that the company plans to use in its AR and VR products like its Quest headset, formerly Oculus, portal smart display, and rayband smart glasses. On Wednesday, it became clear that META sees voice assistance as a key part of the Metaverse, and it knows that its voice assistant needs to be more conversational than what we have now. For example, most voice assistants can easily answer the question, what's the weather today, But if you ask a follow-up question such as, is it hotter than it was last week, the voice assistant will likely be stumped.

Meta wants its voice assistant to be better at picking up contextual clues and conversations, along with other data points that it can collect about our physical body, like our gaze, facial expressions, and hand gestures. To meet those expectations, the company says it's been developing a project called karaoke, a self-learning AI neural model, that's a statistical model based on biological networks in the human brain, to power its voice assistant. This model uses self-supervised learning, meaning that rather than being trained on large datasets, the way many other AI models are, the AI can essentially teach itself.

As one example of how this technology can be applied, Zuckerberg, in virtual reality avatar form, demoed a tool the company is working on called Builderbot that allows you to speak out what you want to see in your virtual reality. For instance, saying, I want to see a palm tree over there, could make an AI-generated palm tree pop up where you want based on what you say, your gaze, your controllers, and hands, and general contextual awareness, according to the company. Meta still needs to do more research for this to be possible, and it's studying what's called egocentric perception, which is about understanding worlds from a first-person perspective to build this out. Currently, it's testing the technology from the model in its portal smart

displays. Eventually, the company also hopes to be able to capture inputs beyond speech, like a user's movement, position, and body language to build even smarter virtual assistance that can anticipate what users want, end quote. There's a post from R slash crazy ideas on Reddit that's been making the rounds on social media this morning. The original poster writes, quote, To avoid war, give Putin an NFT saying he owns Ukraine. That way Putin can brag about having Ukraine without actually having Ukraine. Ukrainians can keep doing Ukrainian stuffs without interference.

everybody wins. Then in parentheses, I don't know how NFT works, BTW, end quote. To which, the most upvoted commenter wrote, quote, that is exactly how NFTs work. Talk to you tomorrow.