🌶️ Hot Fudge Sunday for 2024-12-01
This edition highlights market trends, startup funding news, and nostalgic tech reflections.
Welcome to the latest Hot Fudge Daily. Each day of the week you get thematic value.
🌶️ Spicy Edition Sunday FREE (Hot Fudge Sunday weekly newsletter captures the best of Hot Fudge Daily and the most clicked links for the week.)
📈 Markets Monday $ (Hot Fudge Daily: What is moving markets and why does it matter for the week ahead?)
🔥 Hot Takes Tuesday $ (Hot Fudge Daily: Get fast unfiltered thoughts on news of the day with just a dash of snark.)
🤪 Wacky Wednesday $ (Hot Fudge Daily: Catch up on the wild and wooly memes from a variety of deep web #random channels.)
🔙 Throwback Thursday $ (Hot Fudge Daily: Examine recent news in a thought provoking Shot and Chaser format.)
✅ Final Thoughts Friday $ (Hot Fudge Daily: A clear eyed look back on the week that was and could have been.)
🔮 Sneak Peak Saturday $ (Hot Fudge Daily: Steady and sober unpacking of the slow news day where muted press releases and disclosure stories try to get buried before the weekend takes all the attention.)
🙏 A big thank you to our sponsors. 🙏
(Scroll to the end…)
Hot Fudge Sunday 🤔 💡 🤯 🤓 is a free weekly newsletter containing a digest of the Hot Fudge Daily paid newsletter at hot.fudge.org in a single easy to reach URL. This free weekly edition is posted every… wait for it… Sunday.
Hot Fudge Daily Digest
I took time over the holidays to upgrade fudge.org to Eleventy Excellent 3.7.3 and will soon resume publishing Fudge Factor.
📈 Markets Monday for 2024-11-25
As a reminder, this is an end of day snapshot…
Quick Recap
For Market Monday, I continue to look at the same key indicator that I take from a simple Yahoo Finance webpage each week. It’s how I look at things through the lens of the closing bell on Monday.
Last week…
By comparison…
Previously, I decided on a view from Yahoo Finance. For example, this was a view of intraday in Technology which usually gets around a dozen or so interesting companies when the market is moving and a smaller handful of companies when the market is not moving as much.
If you are using Yahoo Applied Filters for Stocks screener you can bookmark your own heat map view.
% Change in Price (Intraday):greater than 4
Region: United States
Market Cap (Intraday): Mid Cap and Large Cap and Mega Cap
Price (Intraday):greater than or equal 5
Volume:greater than 15000
Sector: Technology
Industry: Software—Infrastructure and Information Technology Services and Computer Hardware and Software—Application and Communication Equipment and Electronics & Computer Distribution and Consumer Electronics and Electronic Components and Scientific & Technical Instruments and Semiconductor Equipment & Materials and Semiconductors
🔥 Hot Takes Tuesday for 2024-11-26
Two hot takes on the two stories caught my eye on Tuesday from companies both started in the ancient times of 2021.
🧬 + 🤖 Seeing a company like Cradle take $73M Series B is amazing and the funding may assist the creation of an open-source Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) dataset for antibody binders.
Techmeme: Cradle, which uses AI to help design proteins and says its SaaS model is popular, raised a $73M Series B led by IVP, after a $24M Series A in November 2023 (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)
By Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch. View the full context on Techmeme.
🦄 + 🤖 Unicorns are born of funding and the… Halcyon days 🤓of applying Capsule Networks (CNNs) via CapNet to Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) has led to a $100M Series C.
Techmeme: Austin-based anti-ransomware startup Halcyon raised $100M at a $1B valuation led by Evolution Equity Partners, bringing its total funding to date to $190M (Katie Roof/Bloomberg)
By Katie Roof / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
Bonus: Great Bluesky thread from Jack Poller
@poller.bsky.social on Bluesky
Another cybersecurity startup achieves the coveted unicorn status! Training its AI engine on millions of ransomware TTPs and behavior indicators, Halcyon can detect and respond to the ever-changing ransomware attacks. 1/5
Bonus bonus: Perhaps Halcyon (AI) will be so successful that another Halcyon (Eco AI) will be needed to better manage energy consumption used to combat attacks powered by… AI?
🤪 Wacky Wednesday for 2024-11-27
Each Wednesday I go through dozens of Slack communities.
I then select the most interesting shared links.
This will always be a safe for work list. 🙈
Restaurant in Italy offers free bottles of wine to customers who hand in phones | Italy | The Guardian
Owner of Al Condominio in Verona says response to the initiative during meals has been very positive
KFC, Hatch help you fall asleep to fried chicken - Brand Innovators
“The taste and smell of our secret blend of 11 herbs and spices may be iconic, but who knew the sound of that delicious chicken frying could help you fall asleep?” said Catherine Tan-Gillespie, KFC’s U.S. CMO, in a statement. “Now, in addition to enjoying the taste of our new KFC Original Recipe Tenders, people […]
🔙 Throwback Thursday for 2024-11-28
In this Thankful Throwback Thursday I am thankful for the web browser technology that has arguably made my career since the 1990s possible starting with NCSA Mosaic to my modern day daily drivers — Safari and Chrome.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Long ago, back in the ancient times of… 2008, Google Chrome was launched as a Windows browser alternative in that most Google of releases… a Beta. These were the days of desktops and laptops with phones being mostly feature phones.
Of course, the year before, Apple released iPhone with it, the Safari mobile browser. Safari on the Mac was ~4 years old by then and Safari on Windows was ~1 year old (but wouldn’t be around for more than a few more years).
Within just a few years, Google Chrome had been ported to reach most popular operating systems. Also, Google Chrome was now considered a browser worth tracking by market percentage use.
By 2010, alternative browser popularity was still solidly in the shadows of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE). Meanwhile, the mobile world was growing rapidly.
Techmeme: Peak Chrome? Google's browser falls as Firefox, Internet Explorer stay flat (Peter Bright/Ars Technica)
This story, by Peter Bright / Ars Technica, appeared on Techmeme.
By 2012, Chrome became available (yes, as a Beta) on Android. Now, there was a growth in mobile browsers besides Safari on iPhone and Safari on Windows has reached its nadir — and Chrome reached parity with MSIE.
By 2013, Safari on iPhone had taken a commanding lead as a mobile browser. Increasingly, mobile was part of the browser market share story.
Techmeme: Safari jumps to 61 percent of mobile browser share (Lance Whitney/CNET)
This story, by Lance Whitney / CNET, appeared on Techmeme.
Fast forwarding to this year, Google Chrome isn’t just popular… it’s the most popular browser as measured by market share. But, as the saying goes about a tall poppy… it gets noticed.
Techmeme: Filing: the US DOJ asks a judge to force Google to sell Chrome, restrict Android from favoring Google Search, and ban default search deals on iOS and other OSes (Michael Liedtke/Associated Press)
By Michael Liedtke / Associated Press. View the full context on Techmeme.
Why now? Here’s a hint:
✅ Final Thoughts Friday for 2024-11-29
Hello NexusTek
I have exciting news to share! I'm thrilled to announce that I've joined NexusTek as their new Chief Product Officer. My vision is to further our mission in making technology easy while building upon our rich NexusTek heritage.
For anyone that left comments on my LinkedIn Warrior post, thank you -- I tried to reply to everyone but the UI/UX isn't perfect. If for some reason, I didn't get a reply back to you --- belated THANK YOU!
The tech news story that caught my eye this week was a reported subsea fiber deployment plan. $10B is a large exclusive investment even for Meta (Facebook).
Techmeme: Sources: Meta plans to build a fiber-optic subsea cable that is 40,000+ kilometers long and extends around the world, a project that could cost more than $10B (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)
By Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch. View the full context on Techmeme.
Then again, Google has seen reporting of numerous regular subsea fiber deployments going back 15+ years.
Techmeme: Google announces a $1B investment to improve digital connectivity between the US, Japan, and multiple Pacific island countries through two new subsea cables (Granth Vanaik/Reuters)
By Granth Vanaik / Reuters. View the full context on Techmeme.
Techmeme: Sundar Pichai says Google will invest $1B to support “digital transformation” across Africa, including laying a subsea cable and low-interest loans for SMBs (Annie Njanja/TechCrunch)
By Annie Njanja / TechCrunch. View the full context on Techmeme.
Techmeme: Google is building a subsea cable called Firmina, after a Brazilian abolitionist, to handle data surge between US, Brazil, and Argentina, due to launch by 2023 (Stephen Shankland/CNET)
By Stephen Shankland / CNET. View the full context on Techmeme.
Techmeme: Google says it's building Dunant, a transatlantic cable between US and France, its second private intercontinental cable after Curie, connecting US and Chile (Angela Moscaritolo/PCMag)
By Angela Moscaritolo / PCMag. View the full context on Techmeme.
Techmeme: Google announces its investment in the Japan-Guam-Australia (JGA) Cable System to boost cloud performance between Australia and Southeast Asia (Michael D. Francois/The Keyword)
By Michael D. Francois / The Keyword. View the full context on Techmeme.
Techmeme: Google plans to build three new undersea fiber optic cables and add five new cloud regions in Montreal, Netherlands, Los Angeles, Finland, and Hong Kong (Ben Treynor Sloss/The Keyword)
By Ben Treynor Sloss / The Keyword. View the full context on Techmeme.
In fact, cooperation between Facebook and Google seemed possible 3 years ago.
Techmeme: Google and Facebook say they will participate in a subsea cable system linking Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Indonesia, launching 2024 (Vlad Savov/Bloomberg)
By Vlad Savov / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
Prior cooperation included multiple partnerships 7 years ago.
Techmeme: SoftBank, Facebook, Amazon, and others partner to lay 60Tbps Jupiter undersea cable, to open in 2020, from Los Angeles to Japan and the Philippines (Paul Sawers/VentureBeat)
By Paul Sawers / VentureBeat. View the full context on Techmeme.
Techmeme: Microsoft, Facebook, and Telxius complete 160Tbps Marea cable, the highest-capacity subsea cable across the Atlantic (Deborah Bach/Microsoft)
By Deborah Bach / Microsoft. View the full context on Techmeme.
🔮 Sneak Peak Saturday for 2024-11-30
By Friday, everything seems to be reaching the peak of getting news turned in before a deadline or dread-line. It sometimes seems like we reach a fever pitch in news coverage throughout the week.
Peak 🏔️ vs. Peek 👀
Then there is a trope, cliché, or bromide about slow news days and the quietly mentioned news updates sent on a Friday — to try and sneak it past wider coverage. Or, in a nutshell, peak patronizing publishing.
In that spirit, here are a few stories that you might have missed on the slow news of a Friday.
Insert Let's See Who This Really Is Meme
Techmeme: How Tony Sayegh, head of public affairs at a major TikTok investor and an official in the first Trump admin, led the effort to win Trump's support for TikTok (Wall Street Journal)
From Wall Street Journal. View the full context on Techmeme.
Insert Ceiling Cat Meme
Techmeme: ESET researchers find the first UEFI bootkit designed specifically to target Linux systems, marking a shift in bootkits that previously focused on Windows (Bill Toulas/BleepingComputer)
By Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer. View the full context on Techmeme.
Insert We're All Trying To Find The Guy Who Did This Meme
Techmeme: Q&A with cognitive scientist Gary Marcus on technical limitations and moral inadequacies of LLMs, constructing a regulatory framework for AI, and more (Steven Rosenbush/Wall Street Journal)
By Steven Rosenbush / Wall Street Journal. View the full context on Techmeme.
Insert That Wasn't Me, That Was Patricia Meme
Techmeme: Bluesky now requires parody or fan accounts to label themselves as such after a researcher found 44% of its 100 most-followed accounts have a doppelganger (Mariella Moon/Engadget)
By Mariella Moon / Engadget. View the full context on Techmeme.
Insert Anthony Adams Rubbing Hands Meme
Techmeme: Ex-Meta crypto chief David Marcus says there was no legal or regulatory angle for the government to kill its Libra project and “it was 100% a political kill” (David Marcus/@davidmarcus)
By David Marcus / @davidmarcus. View the full context on Techmeme.
Note: Some images via Unsplash
Disclosure
I am linking to my disclosure.
Cuthrell Consulting LLCAttn: Jay Cuthrell1903 Live Oak St #92Beaufort, NC 28516-0092
To learn about sponsorship opportunities, contact us. 🤓
This section of the newsletter is meant to fund the services stack that enables readership growth and continue free editions to be published each week.
And now, a word from our sponsors
Note: This pseudo-randomized sponsored portion of the newsletter contains referral links that may financially benefit this newsletter.
New sponsors!
NexusTek
Is your AWS environment operating at its full potential? You could get an AWS environment assessment worth $5,000 that uncovers opportunities to optimize performance, enhance security, and reduce costs. Our readers can get an AWS environment assessment for FREE! Check out NexusTek’s AWS Well-Architected Review!
GuestLab
Are you a podcaster looking for your own AI research assistant to generate personalized intros, interesting topics, and insightful questions for your guests? Check out GuestLab!
Google Workspace
If you are looking for essential tools to run your business, I use and recommend Google Workspace. Our readers can get a promotion code for 10% off per user on your first year of Google Workspace by replying to this email.
Buttondown
If you're looking for a great newsletter platform, I use and recommend Buttondown. Our readers can get $9 off your first month of Buttondown.
Linode
If you are looking for a reliable virtual private server with simple cloud billing math, I use and recommend Akamai Linode. Our readers can get a $100, 60-day credit on Akamai Linode.
⚠️ This content is not legal or financial advice. ⚠️