Read Before Monday #16

Welcome to another edition of #RBM! This week is about the uniquely American disaster that explores the extensive economic and operational consequences of proposed U.S. legislation banning DJI drones due to security concerns over their Chinese origins. Then we move on to the details of how Microsoft ignored critical security flaw warnings from former employee Andrew Harris, prioritising business interests over security, which contributed to the massive SolarWinds cyberattack by Russian hackers compromising U.S. federal data. Additionally, I found a GitHub repository for SOFTS (Series-cOre Fused Time Series) which presents an efficient multivariate time series forecasting model using PyTorch, featuring the STAR module for enhanced efficiency and robustness, advancing beyond traditional methods like attention mechanisms. Finally, two nostalgic reflections! The first is on DR-DOS, revealing its innovations in load-high capabilities, memory management, and password protection, and its struggle against MS-DOS due to Microsoft's dominance and anti-competitive practices. Then the discussion of Ms. Pac-Man's replacement by Pac-Mom in Namco's Pac-Man Museum+, highlighting the cultural significance of the pioneering female character and criticises the change driven by royalty disputes and dissatisfaction with her origins. Lastly, a note on expanding this newsletter "This Week in GenAI" to live video here on Linkedin.

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The DJI Drone Ban: A Uniquely American Disaster outlines the profound implications of the proposed US legislation banning DJI drones, citing security concerns linked to their Chinese origins. The ban, encapsulated in the "Countering CCP Drones Act" as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, would prohibit federal agencies from using DJI drones and potentially revoke existing approvals, grounding current fleets. This legislation is criticised for its far-reaching economic impacts, including significant financial losses for American businesses reliant on DJI technology and increased costs for replacements, particularly for public safety agencies that heavily depend on these drones for life-saving operations. Experts argue that the ban stems from geopolitical tensions and misinformation, emphasising the need for security standards based on technology performance rather than country of origin.

• My take: Hi! Huge DJI customer and fan here. Since the Phantom to the Mavic and Mini, plus the microphones and gimbals too (with the Osmo's), so I might be a bit biased towards them. But looking at recent US bans of tech (from Huawei to TikTok) it seems a bit irrational what they're doing. DJI is one of the great innovators of our time. What they did with consumer drones and then with professional ones, is quite amazing. Not only that, but they also bought one of the great companies doing colour and cameras - Hasselblad. So when it comes to drones, there's no way anyone could do better than them. It's a shame that the US is going down this path, even when manufacturers offer ways to assure governments that nothing is fishy. It also seems weird that we've outsourced to China all manufacturing for the past few decades and now realising that we?need them and can't compete with their prices and innovation, so let's just purely ban. My fear is that the EU/UK will follow the US and ban too DJI.

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ProPublica details how Microsoft ignored warnings about a critical security flaw in their software, identified by former employee Andrew Harris, due to financial concerns and potential business loss. This vulnerability was later exploited by Russian hackers in the SolarWinds cyberattack, compromising sensitive data from U.S. federal agencies. Despite Harris’s persistent alerts, Microsoft prioritised business interests over immediate security fixes, contributing to one of the largest cyber breaches in U.S. history.

• My take: This is the best example of how ignoring warning don't result. Never ever dismiss any security warning, especially critical security flaws. Prioritising financial concerns over security threats will result in more financial pain than anything else. SolarWinds was one of the most recent clusterfcks in tech and security. Neglecting cybersecurity should be a criminal thing. This is just an escalation of failures; from dismissing employee warnings, management inaction (or action towards profit vs security), public image contradicting internal practices, to focusing on immediate costs vs long-term impact for everyone else. It's clearly a lesson to be learned.

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I found this GitHub repository for SOFTS (Series-cOre Fused Time Series), which provides the implementation for an efficient multivariate time series forecasting model developed using PyTorch. SOFTS features a novel STar Aggregate-Redistribute (STAR) module, which centralizes the aggregation and redistribution of channel information, improving efficiency and robustness compared to traditional distributed methods like attention mechanisms.

• My take: I've been fascinated by the usage of Transformers in Time Series for predictions / forecasting - even did a post about it here.? SOFTS?uses a centralized STAR module, improving efficiency and reducing reliance on channel quality, whereas?ARIMA?uses probabilistic modelling and?Transformers?use attention mechanisms. SOFTS?and?Transformers?are both designed to handle large, complex datasets and capture intricate dependencies within the data, unlike?ARIMA. It's a brand new world now, but the ability to bring context and unstructured data to time series is just awesome.

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Great article on DR-DOS, that explores the history and development of the operating system, emphasising its innovations and market challenges. DR-DOS, developed by Digital Research, introduced advanced features like load-high capabilities, memory management, and file/directory password protection. Initially successful due to its retail availability, it faced stiff competition from MS-DOS, which was bundled with hardware. Ownership changes saw DR-DOS move from Digital Research to Novell, then Caldera, and finally Devicelogics, each bringing different strategic approaches. Despite its technological advancements, DR-DOS struggled against Microsoft's dominance and faced significant legal battles over anti-competitive practices. The article highlights DR-DOS's lasting impact on the industry despite its decline

• My take: What a great flashback! I was a huge DRDOS fan and used a lot as replacement of MS-DOS. The directory passwords were a must! But Microsoft DOS was bundled in everything, so it was hard for people to have choice. It's not like we had Google back then to find alternatives. None of my friends had computers when I was a kid, so I had to find what I wanted in Magazines and BBS's, then later on Gopher and IRC. But DRDOS story shows the dominance of Retail vs OEM and obviously how MSDOS won.

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This article discusses the iconic Ms. Pac-Man, her significant impact as a pioneering female video game character, and her recent replacement by Pac-Mom in Namco's Pac-Man Museum+. This change stems from unresolved royalty issues and Namco's possible dissatisfaction with Ms. Pac-Man's origins. The piece highlights Ms. Pac-Man's unique feminist implications and criticises the inferior design and impact of Pac-Mom, lamenting the erasure of Ms. Pac-Man from video game history and the broader cultural landscape.

• My take: Retro time! Twice in this edition! :) This is the perfect story of when business and legal meet cultural significance. Mrs Pac-Man was something in my youth, it was a symbol for early gender presentation in the gaming world. I mean, it had an influence for sure, but not sure if turned more women toward gaming than streaming. Now the thing that annoys me is the Pac-Mom, which doesn't respect the culture and the game itself. We live in a weird world nowadays, where we even try to reshape retro culture. What's next? Make Lara Croft less sexualised?

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This Week in GenAI

This Friday, I did my second live here on LinkedIn and it was about this section of the RBM newsletter. People have been asking me to expand this further and I decided to give live videos another shot. So starting next week, I'll do a live review of "This Week in GenAI", but the links will still be shared here, so no #FOMO!

• How about GenAI for SCOTUS? Well, someone run an experiment and apparently got the right decisions.
• Octopus Energy in the UK is using a lot of GenAI.
• Hindenburg Research says that some should stop selling the AI pipe dream. Yes, that was to Equinix.
• And within the same topic, the FTC said that AI claims should be always checked.
• I've missed this one, but a few months ago the FDA published a paper about AI and ML for medical devices.
• "Baby, I shrunk the LLM" - Small Language Models are go!
• The new Apple shiny AI tech isn't coming to the EU anytime soon, said Apple and it's blaming on regulation. But for it to work you would need the latest iPhone to run it - so it will keep everyone on budget.